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THE 



CIIUPtCH AND THE REBELLION: 



A CONSIDERATION OF 



THE EEBELLIOIT 



AGAINST 



THE GOYERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES; 



AND THE 



AGENCY OF THE CHURCH, NORTH AND SOUTH, 

m RELATION THERETO. 



By R. L. STANTON, D.D., 

PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHXTRCB 
DANVILLE, KENTUCKY. 



NEW YORK: 
DERBY & MILLER, 5 SPRUCE STREET 
1864. 




Si=l 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, 

By derby & MILLER, 

In the Clerk's OflBce of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 
District of New York. 



Xb '^ t* 3 



O. A. ALVOfiD, BTEBEOTYPER AND PRINTEB. 



\\ 



/ /fi 



9 



TO THE 



YOUIS^G MEN OF THE UNITED STATES, 

OP 
EVEPvY CREED IN RELIGION AND EVERY PARTY IN POLITICS, 

WHO PKEFER 

FREEDOM TO SLAVERY; 

WHO ARE LOYAL TO THEIR COUNTRY, 

AND WHO ARE 

AIDING TO SUSTAIN ITS GOVERNMENT AGAINST REBELLION: 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
BY - 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



This volume does not claim to loe a History, 
tliougli some of its chapters are cliieliy liistorical. 
The time for writing tlie History of tlie Rebellion 
has not come. It is, however, just as opportune 
now as it will be at any future period, to inquire 
into the causes of the revolt against the Govern- 
ment of the United States, and to examine the 
agencies wliich have been concerned in initiating 
and impelling it forward. These lie upon the sur- 
face of observation and are patent to all men. Time 
can throw no light upon them which will essen- 
tially change their character. 

Believing that the Church of God in this land, — 
or, properly speaking, many of those in the differ- 
ent branches of the Church who have been leaders 
in its councils, and who are largely responsible for 
the formation and character of its public opinion, 
— may be justly held to have done much towards 
precipitating the Rebellion, as well as aiding it 



vi PEEFACE. 

during tlie whole course of its progress, it is one 
aim of these pages to set forth the proofs and illus- 
trations, in some small degree, of a record so deeply 
humiliating. No complaint need "be enter>ed in he- 
half of those whose conduct we unfold. Least of 
all will they themselves complain, for they glory 
in what they have done, and call on the world to 
applaud them. 

There is another reason why it is essential to ex- 
amine this record. Politicians, secular and reli- 
gious journals, pamphleteers, men in all classes of 
society, freely lay the blame of this Rebellion, in 
a great measure, or wholly, at the door of the 
Church ; charging the ministry, more especially, 
with having caused it. This is a very prevalent 
sentiment, if we may judge from what has been 
said and written. There is undoubtedly justice or 
injustice in the charge, according to the direction 
given to it. It is then essential that the matter be 
probed, so that if the Church or its ministers are 
improperly impugned, they may have justice done 
them ; and that the really guilty may be held re- 
sponsible. 

We have examined many works which have is- 



PREFACE. VU 

sued from the press, calculated to elucidate certain 
pliases of the Rebellion and the War, but we have 
observed no one designed to meet the demand 
which this volume is intended to supply, or which 
at all occupies the ground which several of its 
chapters cover. 

We are indebted to many writers for the facts we 
present, and as far as possible have endeavored to 
give them credit in the body of the work, though 
omissions may have occurred. 

With this statement of the object of this vol- 
ume, we lay it before the public, in the confident 
hope that the Church and the Nation may soon 
come out of this strife, purified and invigorated, 
restored to those principles which were the glory 
of the earlier and better days of the Republic, and 
prepared for that great mission to which we have 
always fondly believed they were destined by the 
Ruler of the whole earth. 

New Yoke, August, 1864. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Character of the Rebellion Page 1-35 

Against Popular Government, 1 ; Southern Domination in the Government, 8 ; 
False charges by the South, 5 ; Against all Measures for Peace, 7 ; Perpetrated 
by fraud and violence, 16; Prosecuted by cruelty and terror, 21 ; Its desolation 
of the country, 27; It aimed to usurp the Government, 28 ; Popular Govern- 
ment universally endangered, 32 ; To perpetuate Negro Slavery, 34. 

CHAPTER II. 
Cause of the Rebellion 36-70 

Slavery the cause, 36 ; An opposite view, 38 ; In what sense Slavery is the cause, 
40 ; Modern views and power of Slavery, 42 ; Proof that Slavery is the cause- 
official testimony, 45; Individual witnesses that Slavery is the cause, 48; Testi- 
mony of Eeligious bodies to the same effect, 51 ; Incidental confirmatory evi- 
dence, 54; All Slave States officially claimed, 55; Unlimited extension of Slavery, 
5T; The restrictive policy, 58; The expansive policy, 60; Eeopening of the 
African Slave trade, 61 ; Reopening of the trade denied, 62 ; Proof of the de- 
signed reopening of the trade, 64 ; The cause fully developed, 68. 

CHAPTER HL 
Responsibility for the Rebellion 71-105 

Abolitionists charged with the responsibility, 72; Fallacious reasoning to sustain 
the charge, 73; They would discuss the subject, 74; Abduction of Slaves, 75; 
The whole North charged with it, 76; Abolitionists not Republicans, 77; Aboli- 
tionists complimented — the People disparaged, 78; Responsibility of Abolition- 
ists disclaimed at the South, 81 ; Discussion the germ of the troubling element, 
84; "What class of Northern men responsible, 87; Responsibility among Politi- 
cians, North, 87; Responsibility among Churchmen, Nprth, 88; Southside view 
of Northern Clergymen, 89; Responsibility of Northern men thus determined, 
93; Northern responsibility in another light, 96; Slavery may be examined at 
the North, 97 ; A subject for all mankind, 99 ; Free society pitied and lamented, 
100 ; Slavery the proper condition for all laborers, 101 ; Who, now, is responsi- 
ble ? 104. 

CHAPTER IV. 
Responsibility for Beginning and Continuing the War. 106-151 

John Minor Botts on Secession, 107; Narrative of events, 108; Rebel Gm^ei-nment 
formed — the South arming, 110; Our Government inactive, 110 ; Siege of Fort 



CONTENTS. 

Sumter, 111 ; Congress not aggressive— Star of the West, 112; New Administra- 
tion—attack on Fort Sumter, 114; The unavoidable issue, 115; Gen. McClellan's 
opinion, 116; Southern assumptions vs. "Northern aggressions," 117; Diplo- 
matists from South Carolina, 118; Their demand insolent, 120; What President 
Buchanan intended, 122 ; Hypocrisy of their peacefur pre tensions, 123; Irrefra- 
gable position of the President, 124; Further negotiations— Confederate Com- 
missioners, 125; Peaceful solution declined, 128; Unjustifiable reasons for refusal, 
130; The Commissioners defiantly court War, 131; A Diplomatic quibble, 132; 
Public facts decide the case, 134 ; Eebel conditions of Peace since the War be- 
gan, 135; The liebel President and Eebel Congress on Peace, 13T; They mis- 
represent the case, 139 ; The real question ignored by the Eebels, 141 ; Eebel 
official mendacity, 143; Another effort for Peace— Niagara Falls Conference, 
146; Missioa to Eidmiond— Peace again, 148. 



CHAPTER V. 

Responsibility of the Southern Chuech for the Rebellion and 
THE War Page 152-206 

Early agency of leading Divines, 155; Dr. Thornwell aids the Eebellion, 155; His 
Fast-Day Discourse, Nov. 21, 1860, 157; He vindicates the Secession of South 
Carolina, 158 ; Open resistance counselled, 159 ; Charge of Treason established, 
160; Drs. Thornwell, Leland, Adger, and others, upon the stump, 161 ; Early aid 
of Dr. Palmer, 163; Dr. Palmer and the mission of Senator Toombs, 163; Speci- 
men of his Thanksgiving Discourse, 165; Eesistance counselled— " the last 
ditch," 167; War welcomed— the Union denounced, 167; Prophecy fulfilled un- 
expectedly, 168; His Sermon steeped in sin, guilt, and crime, 169; He further 
vindicates Secession, 170 ; Dr. Smyth strikes the same chord, 171 ; Judgment 
and blessing, 172 ; Eesistance universally instilled, 172 ; The Clergy of all De- 
nominations aid the Eebellion, 173; Leading Clergymen in the Eebel army, 174; 
Many Ministers go South and aid the Eebellion, 175; Other Eebel Clergymen at 
the South, 176; Southern Churches organized in aid of the Eebellion, 177; Ad- 
dresses of Southern Churches sustaining the Eebellion, 179; The Presbyterian 
Church, 179; The Protestant Episcopal Church, ISO; Christian Association, 181 ; 
The Baptist Church, 182 ; Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, 
Lutherans, German Eeformed. and other Churches, Ninety-six Ministers, 183; 
Southern Eeligious press on the Eebellion, 184 ; At New Orleans, 1S4; At Co- 
lumbia, S. C, 185; At Eichmond, Va., 186; At Fayetteville, N. C, 187; Educa- 
tion in aid of the Eebellion, 188; Great Southern University, 189 ; Disunion- 
Fighting men to be educated, 189; Endowment, five or ten millions, 191; Pro- 
fessorship on Patriotism, 191; Episcopal University of the South, 192; Eebel 
Major-General Hill as au Educator, 193 ; His hatred of the North, 194 ; He 
teaches Secession by algebra, 194; Specimen of algebraic problems, 195; Aid 
of the Church indispensable to the Eebellion, 196; This aid acknowledged by 
Eebel Statesmen, 197; A Statesman's view indorsed, 198; The Church led the 
Politicians, 199; The proof conclusive, 200; Loyal Clergymen in the Border 
States, 201 : Loyalty of Northern Churches— their duty, 202; Duty of the South- 
ern Church the same. 204. 



CONTENTS. XI 



CHAPTER VI. 
Clerical Disloyalty in Loyal States Page 207-246 

Clerical Sympathizers in Maryland, 208 ; Disloyal Ministers in the District of Colnm- 
bia,209; Rebel Sympathizers among Kentucky Clergymen, 211 ; Rev. Thomas A. 
Hoyt, 211 ; Mr. Hoyt's Disloyal Sermon, 212 ; Political Preaching Defined, 214 ; Re- 
ligious Preaching defined, 215 ; War preached in the name of Peace, 216 ; The grand 
distinction — Religion and Politics, 217; No possible Neutrality, 218 ; Dr. Stuart 
Robinson, 219 ; He edits a Disloj'al paper, 220 ; Its Disloyal course in general, 222 ; 
It vilifies the Church for Loyalty, 223; It abuses the Government, 224; Speci- 
mens of its Disloyalty — his position defined, 227 ; God's " curse" with the Presi- 
dent, 229 ; The War charged on Northern men, 280 ; Our Government worse than 
the French Revolutionists, 231 ; Charge of Disloyalty, 233 ; Calumny self-refuted, 
233 ; The Remedy — two examples, 234 ; Government Orders vindicated, 236 ; 
(Church application vindicated by the facts, 239 ; Chief ground of complaint, 241 ; 
Government and Church vindicated by the Law, 242 ; Vindicated by Rebel au- 
thority, 244. 

CHAPTER Vn. 
The Church, North and South, on Disloyalty 241-275 

All men subject to Civil authority, 248 ; Obedience to Civil authority a Religious 
duty, 248; Ministers to preach subjection, 249; Omission of this duty a sin, 
250 ; The crowning guilt, 251 ; Disloyalty punishable by the State, 252 ; What 
Loyalty and Disloyalty are, 253 ; Disloyalty punishable by the Church, 254 ; 
Reasons founded on Revelation, 255 ; Spiritual jurisdiction broader than Civil, 
256 ; Disloyalty actually condemned by the Church, 258 ; Presbyterian Church 
— Dr. McPheeters, 259 ; Individual opinions in the General Assembly, 261 ; Dr. 
McPheeters on Military Orders, 264; False criterion of Loyalty, 265; Gen. 
Rosecrans's Orders, 268; "Honor to whom honor," 271 ; Doom of Traitors— self- 
condemnation, 273. 

CHAPTER Vm. 
Southern Providence in the Rebellion 276-302 

God's providence extends to Nations, 276 ; Its designs toward the United States, 
277; The dead fly in the ointment, 278; The Irrepressible Conflict, 279; The 
difliculty beyond human wisdom, 280 : Hopes dashed and raised again, 281 ; 
Providence from a Southern stand-point, 282 ; It upsets their Theology, 284 ; 
The true doctrine of Providence, 286; Southern exposition of it — Dr. Palmer, 
286 ; Providence frustrated, 287 ; Southern Theology rebuked by Scripture, 288 ; 
Providential rule supreme, 290 ; An explanation needed, 291 ; A solution pro- 
posed, 292; A providence of man's devising, 292; Southern providence further 
illustrated — Dr. Smyth, 293 ; Blasphemy and Fanaticism sublimated, 294 ; The 
providential climax— Dr. Stiles, 295; The Southern Confederacy to usher in the 
Millennium, 296; Rebel Victories by miracle, 298; A new Siege of Jericho, 298; 
The Confederate Armageddon, 300. 



Xli CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 
Proyedential Designs in the Rebellion Page 303-362 

Slavery to be terminated, 305; Manner of its termination, 306; Action in certain 
Border States, SOS; Signs of its termination— the Loyal States, 310 ; Fugitive 
Slave Law repealed, 311; Slaves freed bj-the War, 312; All ti-aceable to the Ke- 
bellion, 313 ; Termination of Slaveiy in the Eebel States, 314 ; Slavery doomed, 
though Disunion triumph, 316; luterual causes of its destruction, 3lT; Illustra- 
tive incident — Colonel Dahlgren, 318; Facts and their Lesson, 319; War educa- 
ting Slaves for Freedom, 320 ; External causes of its desTuction, 321 ; Environed 
by enemies, 322; Cotton Dreams, 323; Slavery doomed and the Union main- 
tained, 324; Eeasons for this position, 326 ; Strength of the parties in Soldiers, 
327; Negro Soldiers— their number unlimited, 329; White Soldiers sufficient, 
330; National Resources and Credit, 331; The Eesult, 332; Governmental de- 
termination confronted, 332 ; Opposition to Slavery fighting against God, 334; 
The Government vindicated in destroying Slavery, 335; Its right of sclf-preser- 
vatlon, 336; Destruction of Slavery a lawful means to this end, 333; Forbear- 
ance of the Government with Slavery, 340; Emancipation Proclamation, 342 ; 
Its final determination justified, 343; Sustained by the Laws of War, 344; Sus- 
tained by examples of several Nations — Great Britain, France, 346; Spain, Co- 
lombia, United States, 347; Illustrated by cases in the United States — Generals 
Jesup, Taylor, Gaines, Presidents Van Buren, Tyler, and Congress, 347; An- 
other case between Great Britain and the United States — decision of the Eua- 
sian Emperor Alexander, 349 ; Opinions of t- minent Statesmen — Jefferson, J. Q. 
Adams, Hamilton, Jay, Madison, 350 ; Vindication complete against idle decla- 
mation, 354; Sustained against the Eebel Congress, 354; Sustained by Southern 
men, 356 ; The sum of Providential indications, 360. 



CHAPTER X. 
The Chuech and Slavery 363-421 

Three periods of Opinion, historically, 363 ; The Church largely responsible for 
Opinion, 366; Presbyterian Church illustrative of others, 36S; First period — 
early Testimony of the Church, 1TS7, 369; Politics and Eeligion — a Prophet, 370; 
Action upon a case submitted, 1795,371; Another case acted upon, 1S15, 372; 
The most elaborate Testimony, 1818, 373 ; Characteristics of the paper of ISIS, 
377; Second period — more "'conservative" views, 37S; Action postponed in 
1836, 3S0; Formal "conservative"' action of 1845, 3S2; Contrast — Action of ISIS 
and 1&45, 385; Action of 1&46 — Declaration of agreement, 3SS; Another contrast 
—1818 and 1S49, 391; A Prottst— Action of 1S45 equivocal, 393; Action of ISfil— 
Synod of South Carolina, ;j94; xVction of 1S63— Eepudiation of 1S45, 395; Eeview 
of Testimonies— 1787 to 1863,397; Corroborative Testimony to the positions 
taken, 400; Proof and Illustrations, 403; The inevitable effect — Northern re- 
sponsibility, 405 ; Action of the General Assembly of 1S64, 408 ; Features of the 
Eeport, 413 ; Te Deum Laudamns, 420. 



CONTENTS. xiii 



CHAPTER XL 
Kentucky Opinions — The Past and the Pre;sent Page 422-451 

Paper of the Committee of the Synod on Slavery, in 1S35, 42-3 ; Movement lor 
Emancipation, in l&i9, 440; Principles of the State Emancipation Convention, 
441 ; Emancipationists defeated in the State— causes, 442 ; Presbyterians un.mi- 
mously for Emancipation— Drs. Breckinridge, Young, and " P.ev. Mr. Eobixsox, 
of Frankfort,'* 443; Drs. Humphrey and W. L. Breckinridge upon Emancipation 
in 1S49. 444; Position of Dr. E. J. Breckinridge in 1849, 445; Hon. Garrett 
Davis on Slavery in 1849, 449 ; A glorious record tarnished, 450. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Modern Southern Views of Slavery 452-472 

Defended by Northern men, 453; Positions taken, 454; Authorities for these 
positions, 455; I. As related to Natural and Municipal Laio, 456; Dr. Thorn- 
well, 455; "General Assembly of the Confederate States," 45T; Dr. Seabury, 
457 ; The True Presbyterian, 457 ; II. As related to Divine Revelation, 453 ; 
Dr. Thornuell, 45S; "General Assembly of the Confederate States,'' 458 ; Prof. 
S. F. B.Morse, 459; Dr. Stuart Pvobinson, 4G0; Dr. Fred. A. Eoss, 402; Gen. 
Thomas E. E. Cobb, 402; Dr. Thomas Smyth, 463; Dr. Seabury, 4G4; The True 
Presbyterian, 401; Dr. J. E. Wilson, 465; Dr. Geo. D. Armstrong, 465; Bishop 
Hopkins, 466; Prof. Bledsoe, 466; Dr. Nehemiah Adams, 466; Eesponsibility of 
the Church for the Eevolution in Southern Opinion, 467; Early position of Eev. 
•James Smylie, 468; Paper of the Synod of Mississippi, 469; Confii-matory Tes- 
timony, 471. 

CHAPTER Xin. 
Slavery in Polemcs— Divine Revelation 473-509 

Preliminary considerations, 473; The "Scriptures grossly libelled, 474 ; Points of 
difference between the Jewish and Southern systems, 476; Professorial judg- 
ment of the case, 483; Proslavery arguments examined, 484; The argument 
from the Decalogue, 485 ; The Abrahamic and Mosaic system, 488; Authority 
in contrast, 490; The New Testament argument, 492 ; Slavery hanging by a 
word, 493; Prof. Lewis on Doulos, 493; Prof. Lewis on Slave-traders, 4t)5; Sla- 
very among the Eelations, 497; The reductio ad absurdum, 498; Slavery univer- 
sally essential, 498 ; Emancipation a sin, 500 ; Invasion of God's prerogative, 
601; The Eelations in dialogue, 502; A Southern family established, 504; Divine 
Ordinances plain, 506; The Servile Eelation as an " Ordinance," 506 ; The only 
loophole, and that closed, 508. 

CHAPTER XIY. 
Slavery in Polemics — Law of ISTature 510-538 

Disagreement on what is the Law of Nature, 510 ; Disagreement in applying the Law 
of Nature, 512; Moral phases involved in the application, 513; Illustrative con- 
tradictions, 514; Slavery against Nature— Code of Justinian, 515; The Justinian 
Code overthrown, 516; Slavery from an Ant-hill, 518; Ant-slavery— Striking 



XIV CONTENTS. 

analogies, 519 ; Slave-trade justified, 520 ; Cannibalism justified on similar ground, 
521 ; Its practical advantages, 521 ; Dr. Thornwell's argument from Nature, 523 
Pagan an example for Christian States, 525; Slavery submitted to a popular vote. 
526; The inevitoble conclusion, 52T; American Slavery founded on Human Law 
527; Conflicting authorities — Law versus Divinity, 52S; Origin of Negro Sla 
very in the United States, 530 ; Its History traced — African Slave-trade, 530 
Founded in Human Law, or without legality, 532; Positive Law — inevitable 
crime, 533 ; Positive Law theory sustained by the highest Southern authority, 
534; The impregnable conclusion, 535; The consoling alternative, 536. 

CHAPTER XV. 

Bevietv and Cokclusion Page 539-562 

The external situation, 539; Responsibility of Foreign Powers, 540; The coming 
reckoning, 542 ; Ketributive Justice, 543; Essential discriminations, 543; Pocket 
Philanthropy, 544; Our cause misrepresented, 545 ; Foreign enmity persistent. 
545; The popular masses with us, 546; The internal situation, 548; What the 
contest exhibits, 548 ; Friends and foes, 550; Subordinate questions, 551 ; Ad- 
ministration and Government, 552; True principle of support — Objections, 558; 
Opposing the Administration — change demanded, 555 ; Loyalty practically tested, 
556 ; Loyalty above partisanship— Violence, 557 ; God reigus— Our trust, 559 ; 
The Patriot's Eeward, 559 ; The Traitor's Doom, 561. 



THE CHUPiCH AND THE REBELLION. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION". 

The rebellion against the Government of the United 
States, now in the fourth year of its progress, is among 
the most extraordinary phenomena in the annals of man- 
kind. It is so remarkable in its objects, so determined in 
its spirit, and has brought into action, upon one side and 
the other, material and moral forces of such gigantic mag- 
nitude, that the world stands appalled at the spectacle it 
presents. 

In any proper consideration of the subject, the logical 
order brings us first to look at the character of the rebel- 
lion. It has certain palpable features which might profita- 
bly admit of an extended examination. Our plan will 
allow us to give them only a passing notice. 

AGAINST POPULAR GOVERNMEISTT. 

1. The primal characteristic it exhibits is that of a vio- 
lent demonstration against the life-prbiciple of Popular 
Government. 

The ultimate sovereignty and true source of all political 
power, under God, are in the people., for whose benefit civil 
society lias been ordained. In God's providence, mankind 
are distributed into nations, in which political power is to 
be exercised through the modes which the people of each 



2 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

may devise. To establish government, and to alter its 
form or character, so as to meet the varying wants of 
society, are among the inherent rights of every people. 
These are very generally conceded as fimdamental princi- 
ples in political science. They are denied by those who 
contend for the divine right of kings, and who hold that 
the many were created for the few; but the ablest writers 
acknowledge these rights as belonging primarily to the 
people, and of which they cannot be justly divested. 

In regard to changing the government which exists over 
a people, either in its form or in matters of substance, the 
modes are various. In a monarchy, a people may wish to 
go no farther than to demand and receive concessions from 
the sovereign, leaving the form and structure of the gov- 
ernment intact. Under a despotism, tyranny may become 
so oppressive as to be unendurable, with no hope of relief 
from the ruling power. Then, revolution may become a 
duty. This remedy is deemed justifiable in extreme cases, 
and a right which a people can never surrender. The pro- 
priety of resorting to it must, for the most part, be deter- 
mined by the circumstances of each case. 

In a popular government, however, republican or demo- 
cratical, whose form and structure have spi'ung from the 
free consent of the whole people, and where the rulers, 
from the highest to the lowest, are chosen and frequently 
changed by their common suffi'ages, the right of violent 
revolution would seem to be well-nigh or quite excluded. 
All abuses of power are subject to that peaceful remedy 
which the people always have in their hnnds. Any branch 
of the government, executive, legislative, or judicial, which 
usurps authority, may be speedily reached and the correc- 
tive applied,— as, for example, in the United States, — by 
impeachment, or by the ballot. If the remedy belong 
directly to the people, the determination is with the major- 



SOUTHEEN DOMINATION IN THE GOVERNMENT. o 

ity, in the manner prescribed by law ; and, when made, 
the decision must be linal if the people are the ultimate 
source of power. A denial of these simple principles ren- 
ders popular government impossible.* 

Now, it is the invasion of that life- principle which under- 
lies the whole structure of popular government, that con- 
stitutes the primal item in the catalogue of crimes which 
make up the terrible guilt of this rebellion. It is an appeal 
from the ballot-box to the sword ; a determination to 
defeat by war the results of a popular election, fairly con- 
ducted in all respects according to the Constitution and 
laws, as those who have revolted admit ; an election in 
which they, equally with the rest of the nation, freely 
embarked, and by the results of which they were there- 
fore solemnly bound. This is the charge which stands 
recorded against them in the face of the whole world. 

SOUTHEKN DOMINATION IN THE GOVEENMENT. 

2. Another item in the character of the rebellion is, 
that it is waged against a Government whose administra- 
tion the rebels, through the ])arty with which they had 
generally acted, had almost uniformly controlled^ frora the 
origin of the Government to the time of their revolt^ and 
every branch of which was still in their possession. 

This is one of those facts in our history, so well known 
and so public that it will scarcely be questioned. But an 
authority so valuable as that of Vice-President Stephens, 
of the " Confederate" Government, may here be given. 

* Says M. De Tocqueville, in his Democracy in America : " All authority origi- 
nates in the will of the majority.'" " In the United States, the majority governs in 
the name of the people, as is the case in all the countries in which the people is 
supreme." " The very essence of democratic government consists in the absolute 
sovereignty of the majority." "The moral power of the majority is founded upon 
yet another principle, which is, that the interests of the many are to be preferred 
to those of the few." 



4 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

Ill a speech at Washington, Georgia, June 8, 1601, he 

says : — 

It has been our pride that out of the seventy-two years of the ex- 
istence of the Government under the Constitution, it has been for sixty 
under the control of Southern statesmen. This has secured whatever 
of prosperity and greatness, growth and development, has marked the 
country's career during its past history. The Northern masses gener- 
ally agreed with Southern statesmen in their policy, and s^istained them. 
These were the democracy of that section. Mr. Jefferson said they 
were allies. Washington's administration lasted eight years. It was 
Southern, and in the line of Southern policy. Then came the elder 
Adams. He was from Massachusetts. Opposite ideas shaped his poli- 
cy. At the end of four years, the people indignantly turned him and 
his counsellors out of power. Then came Jefferson, Madison, and Mon- 
roe, each eight years — all Southern men. Here we had thirty-two 
years of Southern administration to four Northern. Then came the 
younger Adams from the North. He was the great embodiment of 
those ideas which now control Lincoln's administration. At the end of 
four years he was turned out of power, and Jackson, a Southern man, 
came in for eight years. Then came Yan Buren, a Northern man, for 
four years. Then Harrison, Tyler, and Polk, which added eight years 
more of Southern control. Next, Taylor and Fillmore. Fillmore was a 
Northern man, it is true, but his administration was sustained by the 
South, and so was Pierce's. These may be called Southern adminis- 
trations ; and so was Buchanan's — thus making sixty out of the seven- 
ty-two years of the Government's existence under the Constitution. All 
the important measures which have marked the history of the Govern- 
ment, which have made it what it is, or was before the dismemberment, 
and made it the admiration of the world, were the fruits of the policy of 
Southern statesmen. 

This statement of Mr. Stephens requires one modifica- 
tion. The poHcy of Mr. Van Buren's administration was 
as intensely Southern as that of any one he claims. It was 
not till several years after his retirement from public life 
that he gave expression to those views which rendered 
him odious to his quondam Southern friends. The balance 
may then be adjusted so as to give to the South, upon the 
principle Mr. Stephens lays down, sixty-J'ow years ol' con- 



FALSE CHARGES BY THE SOUTH. 6 

trol of the Government, and to the North eight years ; 
and that, too, while the North had a large majority of the 
population of the country. 

Besides thus wielding the power and shaping the policy 
of the Government from its origin, the party of which 
Mr. Stephens here speaks had control of every branch of 
the Government when the revolt began, and even the Ex- 
ecutive was not to be changed for a period of four months. 
From this state of facts, it seems in a high degree probable, 
that, had this powerful party remained intact, and had its 
Southern leaders exercised only a modicum of that saga- 
city which had characterized them in its better days, it 
could have secured for the South all that the South had a 
right to demand under the Constitution, and saved the land 
from a deluge of blood. But the instigators of this rebel- 
lion wantonly threw away the power which they possessed, 
to grasp a shadow which their ambition had pictured. 

FALSE CHAKGES BY THE SOUTH. 

3. While this is a rebellion against the Government 
proper, it was instigated against an incoming Adminis- 
tration on false grounds. 

It was charged at the outset throughout the South, that 
it was to be the policy of Mr. Lincoln's Administration to 
destroy slavery. This charge was known and proven to 
be false in every possible way which the case admitted. 
It was denied in the most formal manner in the platform 
of the party, adopted in the National Convention by 
which the present Executive was nominated. It was 
denied by many of the leading men of the party, in their 
numerous speeches during the canvass, and by the resolu- 
tions of many assemblages of the people ; and if there 
were any contrary declarations they were wholly without 
authority, in the face of the formal announcement of the 



6 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

National CoDvention. And finally, it was denied by the 
President in his Inaugural Address.* In short, it would 
seem to be impossible to meet such a charge in any way 
in which it was not met. And yet, the revolt began im- 
mediately upon the result of the Presidential election 

* The following is an extract from the Inaugural Address of President Lincoln, in 
which is embodied the resolution above referred to from the platform of the National 
Convention : " I do not consider it necessary, at present, for me to discuss those 
matters of iidministration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. 
Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, that by the ac- 
cession of a Eepublican Administration, their property and their peace and personal 
security are to be endangered. There never has been any reasonable cause for such 
apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while exist- 
ed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches 
of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I 
declare that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institu- 
tion of slavery in the States where it exists.' I believe I have no lawful right to do so ; 
and I have no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me, did so with 
the full knowledge that I had made this, and made similar declarations, and had never 
recanted them. And more than this, they placed in the platform, for my acceptance, 
and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now 
read : ' liesolved. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions 
according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on 
which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend; and we de- 
nounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, 
no matter under what pretext, as among the grossest of crimes.' I now reiterate 
these sentiments; and in doing so I only press upon the public attention the most 
conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and 
security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming Ad- 
ministration. I add, too, that all the protection which, consistently with the Con- 
stitution and the laws, can be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when 
lawfulh^ demanded, for whatever cause, as cheerfully to one section as to another." 
The foregoing sentences completely disprove the charge under consideration. The 
President closed his Address as follows: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow- 
countrymen, and aoi. in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Govern- 
ment will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government ; 
while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it.' I am 
loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic 
chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every 
living heart and hearthstone all orer thiS broad land, will yet swell the chorus ol' 
the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our 
nature." 



AGAINST ALL MEASURES FOR PEACE. 7 

(N'ov. 6, 1860) becoming known, and four months before 
the Administration was to assume power, in those acts of 
secret and open aggression upon the public authority and 
property throughout the Southern States, with which the 
world is so familiar. 

The third item, therefore, which characterizes the rebel- 
lion, is, that it began with a most barefaced and palpable 
lie in its right hand, forged by the leaders against the 
sovereign people of the United States, in the face of the 
most public and indisputable facts to the contrary, and 
employed as a rallying cry to deceive the masses at the 
South and precipitate the States into secession. 

It cannot be said, in answer to this, that the event has 
proved the charge true ; that the present policy of the Ad- 
ministration towards slavery shows that it was from the 
first its design to destroy it. There is no shadow of evi- 
dence that the President, or the party that elected him, 
intended orighially to interfere with it in the States, but 
overwhelming proof to the contrary. But when open war 
was made in the interest of slavery, to supplant the Gov- 
ernment and dismember the Union, the whole case was 
changed; and as, on the one hand, the rebels did not enter 
upon the war to prove their prediction true, so, on the 
other, the Administration were not bound to abstain from 
touching slavery in order to prove the prediction false. 

AGAINST ALL MEASIJKES EOE PEACE. 

4. After the rebelhon began, it was persistently adhered 
to and prosecuted, in sjnte of the most urgent means to 
preserve peace^ made by the party which had triumphed in 
the Presidential election, and by many of the patriotic of 
all parties. 

Among other important measures which were taken 
during the winter and prior to the fourth of MarcJi, 1801, 



8 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

while President Buchanan was still in power, were three 
which deserve sjDecial notice : The Acts of the Peace Con- 
vention, as it was called; the proposed Amendment to the 
Constitution from the Committee of Thirty-Three of the 
House of Representatives ; and the organization of the 
Territories. 

The Peace Convention met in Washington in January, 
1861, and continued in session several weeks. It was con- 
vened on the recommendation of the Legislature of Vir- 
ginia, and composed of delegates from thirteen free States, 
and seven slave States ; to devise measures which should 
be recommended to Congress for its ^fdoption, in order to 
harmonize the views of the two sections of the country 
and prevent bloodshed. It embraced many of the ablest 
men of the country, of the different shades of political 
opinion in each State represented. Although it was a body 
of no legal authority, yet from the weight of character of 
the men composing it, presided over by one who had filled 
the office of President of the United States, and from its 
humane and patriotic objects, its proceedings were watched 
with intense interest. 

As the result of its deliberations, this Convention pre- 
sented to Congress the recommendation of an article for 
an amendment to the Constitution, consisting of seven 
sections. As the questions which divided the country 
related mainly to slavery, the provisions of this proposed 
article were framed with special reference to that subject. 
Among them were the following, some of which were 
made apparently to the demands and others to the fears 
of the party in revolt, and nearly all of which were most 
marked concessions to the whole South. The article 
restored the Missouri Compromise line, with very serious 
modifications, on the parallel of latitude of 36° 30'. It 
admitted slavery into "all the territory" south of that 



AGAINST ALL MEASURES FOR PEACE. 9 

line, guaranteeing that the status of slaves then within it 
should " not be changed," and prohibiting Congress and 
the Territorial Legislature from passing any law against 
taking slaves into such territory. It guaranteed the admis- 
sion of States into the Union from "any Territory North 
or South of said line," either with or without slavery, as 
the Constitution of each State should provide. It pro- 
hibited such a construction of the Constitution as would 
give to Congress any power whatever over slavery in any 
of the States ; or fo abolish slavery in the District of 
Columbia without the consent of Maryland, and without 
the consent or compensation of the owners ; or to prevent 
any one from taking his slaves to and from the District of 
Columbia at pleasure ; or to interfere with or abolish sla- 
very in any place, either in State or Territory, "under the 
exclusive jurisdiction of the United States;" or to inter- 
fere with the domestic slave-trade between the slave 
States. It also prohibited such a construction of the Con- 
stitution as would " prevent any of the States," so dis- 
posed, "from enforcing the delivery of fugitives from 
labor" to their owners ; and made it obligatory u23on Con- 
gress to " provide by law that the United States shall pay 
to the owner the full value of his fugitive fi'om labor in all 
cases" where fugitive slaves should be prevented from 
arrest or rescued from the officers of the law " by violence 
or intimidation from mobs or riotous assemblages." And 
finally, it provided that the sections ejnbodying these sev- 
eral guarantees and prohibitions (with two minor excep- 
tions), together with the several parts of the Constitution 
which now relate to slavery, should " not be amended or 
abolished, without the consent of all the States." A 
majority of "three-fourths" only of the States is now 
requisite for amending any part of the Constitution. 
It is perceived at a glance that these propositions of the 



10 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

Peace Convention made concessions to the whole South in 
several important particulars. The only question touching 
slavery which was brought into the Presidential canvass 
of 1860, was that concerning the Territories, over which 
Congress has full jurisdiction ; and the result of the elec- 
tion was deemed a solemn judgment by the people that 
the Territories then free should remain free. This was 
simply in accordance with a principle Avhich Congress had 
recognized several times in our history, by prohibiting sla- 
very in portions of the territory of the United States, and 
these prohibitions had been sanctioned as constitutional by 
Southern Presidents and by the general acquiescence of 
all political parties.* But after the revolt commenced, and 



♦Including the action of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confede- 
ration, and the several acts of Congress under the present Constitution, there hns 
been direct legislation many times, prohibitory of or interfering with slavery in the 
Territorial domain under the immediate jurisdiction of the Government of the 
United States, between that earlier period and the administration of President 
Polk. The Continental Congress passed the famous "Ordinance for the Govern- 
ment of the Territory of the United States Northwest of the Ohio Pdver," July 13, 
■•787. Eight states were represented, and voted on this Ordinance, three of which 
■^ere free at the beginning of the rebellion, and five were slave, each State having 
one r^te, viz. : Free States, Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey ; Slave States, 
Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Every <yn6 of 
these States voted for this Ordinance prohihitiiig slavery, and also every mem- 
ber but one, Mr. Yates, of New York. The Constitution of the United States was 
adopted in the same year, and in the Convention which framed it were several of the 
same men who in the Continental Congress passed this Ordinance. One of the ear- 
liest acts of the First Congress passed under the Constitution and during the admin- 
istration of General Washington as President, embracing again several men who liad 
been in the Convention that framed the Constitution, was an act to enforce the 
Ordinance of 17S7, excluding slavery from the Northwest Territory ; and in doing 
this, the fathers M'ho had made the Constitution so recently did not of course sup- 
pose they were violating it. Whatever else, therefore, may be said about this Ordi- 
nance and the Act of Congress last referred to, and whatever else they may have 
included or covered, it is clear that they proMhited slavery in United States Ter- 
ritory; and they so far forth show that, in the .judgment of the men who understood 
the real intent and meaning of tlie Constitution as well probably as any men who 
have since lived, it is perfectly within the power of Congress to prohibit slavery in 
any Territory of the United States whenever in its opinion public policy demands 
it Nor has the exercise of such power been pronounced an infraction of the Con- 
stitution by the Supreme Court, or been so deemed by any class of public men (and 



AGAINST AXL MEASURES FOR PEACE. 11 

solely for the sake of preventing bloodshed, the Peace 
Convention, in which were some of the leading men of the 
triumphant party, presented to Congress for adoption into 
the Co7istitiltion^ the foregoing provisions, which would 
secure greater immunities to slavery than it had ever 
before enjoyed. 

How were these generous proposals received? The 
leaders of the rebellion scouted them Avith scorn. Some 
of them publicly declared,' — as in the case of the Hon. 
Lawrence M. Keitt, member of the House of Represen- 
tatives from South Carolina, — that if a blank parchment 
were given them on v,'hich to write the demands which the 
North should grant, they would reject it with contempt. 
Mr. Tyler, the President of the Peace Convention, went 
home to Virginia, and with other leading men of that 
State used all his influence against the favorable reception 
of these proposals by the Legislature. We witnessed, per- 
sonally, the manner in which these propositions were 
received in the Senate of the LTnited States. On being 
reported from the committee to whom they had been 
referred, we heard five speeches made upon them which 
consumed the chief portion of one day's session. Messrs. 
Mason and Hunter, of Virginia, spoke earnestly against 



never by any political party), until within a very recent period. The last instance 
in the series of Congressional prohibitory acts now referred to, occurred as late as 
the administration of James K. Polk, a Southern President. With a Democratic 
majority in both Houses of Congress, slavery was prohibited in the bill for the 
organization of the Territory of Oregon. The Southern doctrine, therefore, that the 
Constitution carries slavery into the Territories by its own inherent force, and that 
Congress therefore cannot prohibit but is bound necessarily " to protect'' it there by 
positive law, is a modern notion — very modern. And yet, this question of slavery 
in the Territories was made a chief element in the South (see next chapter) for urg- 
ing tlie people into rebellion. Dr. Thorn well but announces the new doctrine on 
this point upon which rebel statesmen and the whole South acted, — and it goes 
beyond the Territories and into the States, — M'hen he says: "The Constitution 
covers the whole territory of the Union, and throughout that territory has taken 
slavery under the j^ro^t^cfjon 0/ Zaro." — Southern Preabyterian Eeview, Jan., 1S61. 

2 



12 CHARACTEE OF THE KEBELLIOJS". 

tlierD, as did also Mr. Pugh, of Ohio, these three men 
being of the party in the Senate having the majority ; 
while their adoption was earnestly and most eloquently 
urged by Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky, and by JVIr. Baker, 
of California, the latter being of the Republican party, 
and showing a few months later, in the unfortunate battle 
at Ball's Bluff, that he was as ready to pour out his heart's 
blood for his country, when the clash of arms had actually 
come, as he was to speak eloquently for peace as long as 
peace was possible. 

What good fruit could be expected from the labors of 
the Peace Convention, when their extreme and generous 
concessions to the South were spurned with disdain by all 
those who controlled Southern opinion ?* 

The second measure to which we have referred, was 
taken in the same spirit which actuated the Peace Conven- 
tion. It was another proposition to amend the Constitu- 
tion, emanating from the Committee of Thirty-Three of the 
House of Representatives, of which Mr. Corwin, of Ohio, u 

* The late Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Salmon P. Chase, was a member of this 
Peace Convention. On visiting his home in Ohio, in October last, addressing his 
fellow-citizens in Columbus and again in Cincinnati, he incidentally refers to tho 
labors of this Convention, as follows; "When he left the State, it had been at the 
invitation and appointment of his friend and most honored successor (Governor Den- 
nison), a Governor, he must here take the opportunity to say, who had worthily dis- 
charged the great trusts the people had confided to his hands. In the Peace Confer- 
ence, to which he had thus been appointed, he and his Northern colleagues had been 
animated by the sincerest and most anxious desire to preserve the peace and har- 
mony of the Republia They had no wish save to give effect to the Constitution 
and laws as they stood. They had assured the delegates from the South that if they 
would be content with slavery where it was, there was no considerable body of men 
anywhere who sought to interfere with them. Join us, then, — they had proposed, — 
in assuring your people of this plain, indisputable fact, and allay this dangerous ex- 
citement. Then call for a National Convention and let the whole country decide on 
the new claims you prefer. But for that fair, simple proposition, not one $ingle vote 
from a single slaveholding State tons recorded. John Tyler was the Chairman of 
that Convention. Mr. Seddon, the present rebel Minister of War, and nearly every 
other member from the South, was now identified with the rebellion. They did not 
consent to the proposition, because they had made up their minds before they entered 
the Convention, to rule the nation or ruin iV— Cincinnati Gazette, Oct. 13, 1863. 



AGAINST ALL MEASURES FOR PEACE. 13 

leading member of the Republican party, was the Chair- 
man. It was ill these words : " No ameudment shall be 
made to the Constitution which will authorize or give 
Congress power to abolish or interfere, in any State, with 
the domestic instituiious thereof, including that of persons 
held to labor or servitude by the laws of said State." 

This proposed amendment was intended to meet the spe- 
cific charge, made all through the South during the Presi- 
dential canvass, that the Republican party designed to in- 
terfere with slavery in the States. It was indeed a w^ork 
of supererogation, for no statesman of any party had ever 
pretended that Congress had any such power as it was 
proposed here to restrict. But it shows how earnest w^ere 
the national authorities to promote concord between the 
North and the South. This measure passed both branches 
of Congress by the requisite majority of tw^o-thirds, and in- 
deed almost unanimously. It is highly probable that it 
would have been passed by the required number of the 
States, had not the violent measures of those in rebellion 
soon revealed that a prevention of actual hostilities was 
hopeless.* 

The third measure showing a disposition to remove all 
causes of complaint as far as possible, is seen in the action 
of Congress upon the organization of Territories. As be- 
fore stated, the only question touching slavery upon which 
the Presidential election turned, was concerning its status 
in the Territories. Congress, before its close on the 4th 



* To this proposition to amend the Constitution, President Lincoln referred in his 
Inaugural Address, as follows: "I understand that a proposed amendment to the 
Constitution (which amendment, however, I have not seen) has passed Congress, to 
the efifect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with the domestic insti- 
tutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. To avoid miscon- 
struction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to speak of particular 
amendments, so far as to say, that, holding such a provision to be now implied con- 
Btitutional law, I have no objections to its being made express and irrevocable." 



14 CIIAKACTEK OF THE KEBJ^LLION. 

of March, ]861, organized several Territorial Governments 
for the remaining portion of tiie public domain. Bat in- 
stead of ingrafting upon these bills any prohibition of 
slavery in these Territories, — which they had the power of 
numbers to do after the withdrawal of the Southern mem- 
bers, as well as the authority of many precedents by Con- 
gress from the earliest period, and which would have been 
in accordance with the sentiments of the people expressed 
in the election, — the whole question was left open to the 
decision of the people in each Territory when they should 
form their respective State Constitutions ; thus practically 
allowing to the South all thnt had been yielded by the 
decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case, that 
they might go to the Territories with their slaves, and 
abide the decision of the people whether they should be 
ultimately free or slave States.* 

When such advances were made to the party then in 
revolt, and when they were met in the well-known manner 
indicated, no seer was needed to predict the result. In 
the words of the Hon. Edward Everett, the leaders of the 
rebellion " were resolved not to be satisfied." They looked 
with proud contempt upon the men who endeavored to 
conciliate them, and regarded their most generous conces- 
sions as prompted by pusillanimity and cowardice. They 
believed that a people who could so act would not fight 
when the trial of arms should come — a mistake of which 
they have since had ample proof. 

This characteristic of the rebellion thus exhibits the most 
indubitable evidence, — and it is furnished in many other 

* In an account of a public meeting held at Lonisvillo, Kentucky, the Louisvilla 
Journal of the next day, April 21, 1861, says : "The Hon. John Brown Young fol- 
lowed in a speech unsurpassed in power and brilliancy. This gifted young orator 
rehearsed the history of the last Congress, Lhe efforts for compromise, the surrender 
hy the Republicans of the fundamental idea of the Chicago Platform, in the posi- 
tive non- extension of Slavery in the formation of the oieio Territories.'''' 



AGAINST ALL MEASURES FOR PEACE. 15 

public facts, — that wliile the people of the North, repre- 
sented by their leaders, were disposed to go to extreme 
lengths in preserving peace, the leaders of the rebellion 
were as persistently determined, in the face of these over- 
tures, to brave all the hazards and horrors of civil war to 
carry out their foregone purposes.* 

♦One of the most thorough specimens of sympathy with the South which we have 
met with in Northern literature, from a respectable source, since the beginning of 
the rebellion, is a pamphlet of thirty-two pages from the pen of Eev. Samuel J. 
Baird, D.D., of 'New Jersey, entitled "Southern Eights and Northern Duties in the 
Present Crisis." It is in the form of a Letter, dated February 6, 1861, to the Hon. 
William Pennington, then Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United 
States. Dr. Baird says: "When a free, enlightened, and Christian people, — and such 
are our Southern brethren, — are induced to peril all, to rend the ties which have 
hitherto held them, or even to hesitate upon venturing the fearful experiment of 
revolution, the causes must be such as stand justified to conscience, and appeal to the 
highest principles of our nature. Either they are victims of a gigantic fraud, oi- they 
labor under grievances of the most serious nature. Upon either alternative, the-ir 
position is entitled to profound respect, generous forbearance, and anxious study to 
discover and expose the fraud if they have been deceived, or to rectify the wrong if 
they are the subjects of real grievance; by any honorable means to allay their anxie- 
ties and restore the Union." It is very clear, from the whole pamphlet, that he 
deems the South the injured party, and most grievously wronged ; and the chief 
re!?ponsibility is laid at the door of the ''• Republican party'' which put Mr. Lincoln 
into otlice, whose 'attitude'' he is led to " examine more particularly," "because the 
power is in their hands at this momentous crisis." Hence he criticizes their platform 
and condemns their priaciples and general course, and in these finds justification or 
palliatives for the South. Here is a specimen : " So long, in a word, as the repre- 
sentatives of a great party, professing to reflect the sentiments and act in the name 
of the North, form intrenchments around the Southern States, with the avowed pur- 
pose of arresting their further expansion, it is in vain to deny that the South has the 
most grave and momentous cause of apprehension. * * * It may be our duty to 
treat the institutions of the South as a crime, and themselves as enemies, to be sur- 
rounded and kept in subjection. Upon that question I now say nothing. But, 
manifestly, the alternative is, that all this is wrong, and an aggression u-hich the 
Southought not to suffer ; or that if right, in absolving us from the obligations to 
the South which have been heretofore recognized, it releases the latter from alle- 
giance to the Union:'' Further on. Dr. Baird says: "My single object has been, to 
bear a testimony to the claims of justice against us on her behalf— to expose the 
assumpticm that it is our peculiar prerogative, as guardians of the Territories, to 
protect them from the crime and curse of our Southern brethren. To this purpose, 
it has been shown that Hie South has just cause of grievance of the most serious 
chay'acter.^chich demands prompt and Kineerful redress at our hands; and rights 
in the Territories, which neither in honor nor honesty may we disregard." Again : 
"Our first and imperative duty, in faithfulness to our covenants and to the claims of 



16 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

PERPETRATED BY FRAUD AIST) VIOLENCE. 

5. The rebellion was carried through the forms of seces- 
Bion, in many of the States, hy fraud and violence^ against 
the icishes^ and in some against the direct vote^ of a 
majority of the people. 

The facts which illustrate this are voluminous, and 
generally well known. We are compelled to glance at 
them briefly, and can refer to a few palpable cases only. 

The popular vote of Louisiana upon the ordinance of 
secession was never officially made public. It was charged 
by the New Orleans papers at the time as being largely 
against secession, and the officers of the Convention were 
challenged to proclaim the result. To this day that duty 
has never been performed by them, while there is the most 
unquestionable evidence that the State was forced into 

honor and justice, is to accord to the South any necessary protection against the 
piratical policy of abolitionism, and a distinct reco<irnition oi her rights in the Terri- 
tories of the United States." What, then, does Dr. Baird wish to have done, and by 
•whom? He would probably have had Congress, when assembled in December, 1800 
immediately get down on its knees and beg the South's pardon that the people had 
elected Mr. Lincoln, even when that Congress had a Democratic majority in both 
ITotises. Hear him : "No one capable of forming an intelligent judgment on the 
subject, can look over the progress of events at the South, and the results thus far, 
and doubt that had Congress, at the openiii g of the present session, pkomptlt shown 
a spirit of magnanimous patriotism, such as was so eminently becoming from the 
stronger to the weaker, and which the circumstances so clearly demanded, tho tide 
of secession would have been stayed on the borders of South Carolina ; and that State 
would soon have returned to her place in our midst." We have shown what measures 
for " peace" Congress did actually propose when that Democratic majority had been 
reduced to a minority by the withdrawal of the Southern members. Dr. Baird, 
nevertheless, mourns over " Congressional inactivity," and denounces " the treach- 
erous passivity of the present session." It is but just to suppose, however, that he 
would not have belabored Congress in exactly that style, had the proceedings of the 
whole session been before him at the time he wrote ; especially when, at the opening, 
his friends were in the majority. But after making allowance for this, the character 
of his pamphlet is such, throughout, that, although by no means as we suppose so 
intended, it was well calculated and unquestionably did give "aid and comfort" to 
the rebellion, both among those who were then and long before had been mustering 
and arming soldiers for the overthrow of the Government, and their hearty sympa- 
thizers all through the North. 



PERPETEATED BY FRAUD AND VIOLENCE. 17 

secession against the direct vote of a majority of the 
people. 

Governor Hamilton, of Texas, in an address to the peo- 
ple of that State in January last, not going into any proof 
of the fact, but incidentally referring to what those whom he 
was addressing well knew to be true, says : " When you 
were forced, hy a 'minority, into rebellion, you were in the 
enjoyment of every blessing ever conferred by civil govern- 
ment upon men." 

Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, were carried 
into secession by violence and terror, as many of their 
own newspapers and public men at the time declared. 
Proof of this which we have in possession would fill many 
pages. In some States, the whole work was done by a 
Convention, or by the State Legislature, without the voice 
of the people taken upon the ordinance of secession ; in 
others, the submission of the question to a popular vote 
was but a burlesque on the elective franchise. We men- 
tion facts which are too recent and too familiar to be 
doubted, and only refer to them to exhibit another of the 
striking characteristics of the rebellion. 

A single testimony, chiefly concerning the manner in 
which Virginia was carried " out of the Union," will serve 
as an example of other cases. It is furnished by a dis- 
tinguished Southern statesman who was familiar with the 
scenes he describes: 

In these circumstances was the peaceful process of secession set on 
foot, and the deceived masses of the Southern States stimulated into 
that unnatural frenzy which wildly hurried them into a treason from 
which retreat soon became impossible. "When this drama of secession 
came to the stage of its formal enactment in the passage of secession 
ordinances, it was characterized by frauds only more stupendous than 
those I have described, because they implicated a greater number of 
actors and spread over a wider surface. Whilst some of the States, 
perhaps a majority of them, were in earnest in their resolve to secede 



18 CHARACTER OF TUE KEBELLION. 

the most important States were not ; and if the people in these had 
been left to the free expression of their wisli they would have refused. 
The Convention of Virginia had been elected by a vote which was 
largely against secession, and the Legislature which authorized that 
Convention had taken care to provide that no ordinance of secession 
should have any effect unless ratified by a subsequent expression of the 
popular will in the regular election. When the Convention assembled 
at Richmond, there was a majority of its members opposed to the ordi- 
nance. The scenes that were enacted in the sequence of the proceed- 
ings, by which that majority was reduced to a minority, are only 
partially known to the country. AVhilst the sessions were open to the 
pubhc observation the majority held its ground, but amidst what perils 
and apphances, every inhabitant of Richmond at that time knows. The 
best men of the State, and there were many, who had dared to speak 
in the Convention in favor of the Union, were exposed to the grossest 
insults from the mob that filled the lobbies, and by whom they were 
pursued with hootings and threats to their own dwellings. Still, no 
vote could be got sufficient to carry the ordinance. The Convention 
then resolved to exclude the pubhc and manage their work in secret 
session. From that day affairs took a new turn. The community of 
Richmond was fihed with strife. The friends of the Union, both in the 
Convention and out of it, — a large number of persons, — were plunged 
into the deepest anxiety and alarm. They felt that the cause was lost 
and that the sentiment of the majority of the State would be overruled. 
Quarrels arose. Ardent and reckless men were distempered with 
passion. It Vv^as no longer safe to discuss the suliject of the day in the 
streets. The hotels were filled with strangers, loud, peremptory, and 
fierce. A friend of the Union could not mingle in these crowds with- 
out certainty of insult, nor eyen sometimes without danger of personal 
violence. The recusant members of the Convention were plied with 
every expedient to enforce their submission. The weak were derided, 
the timid buUied, the wavering cajoled with false promises and false 
representations of the state of opinion in the country. Those who 
could not be reached by these arguments, but who were found pliable 
to more genial impulses, were assailed by flattery, by the influences of 
friendship, by the blandishments of the dinner-table, and finally carried 
away by the wild enthusiasm of midnight revelry. If the Convention 
had sat in Staunton or Fredericksburg, — anywhere but in Richmond. — 
no ordinance of secession could have been passed. As it was, it was a 
work of long and sinister industrv to bring it about. It became neccs- 



PERPETKATED BY FRAUD AND VIOLENCE. 19 

sarv to fire the people with new and startling sensations — to craze the 
public mind with excitement. To this end, messages were sent to 
Charleston to urge the bombardment of Sumter. * * * The wdiole 
South became ablaze. Men lost all self-control, and were ready to obey 
any order. The vote of the Convention had been canvassed from time 
to time during this process of ripening the mind for the act of secession, 
and it was now found that it might be successfully put. It was taken 
tliree days after the surrender of Fort Sumter, and the public were 
told that it was carried by a large majority. Subsequent disclosures 
show that upwards of fifty of its members stood firm and preserved their 
equanimity in this great tempest of passion. The scene at the taking 
of the vote is described by one of the members as resembling the riot 
of a hospital of lunatics. The ratification of this act was yet to be gone 
through, as prescribed by the law, in a vote of the people to be taken 
in May. That proceeding was substantially ignored in all that fol- 
lowed. An appointment of members to the rebel Congress was imme- 
diately made, to represent the State in the Provisional Government 
then established at Montgomery. The President of the new Con- 
federacy was forthwith invited to send an army into the State ; and 
accordingly, when the month of May arrived, troops were stationed in 
all those counties where it was supposed any considerable amount of 
loyalty to the Union existed amongst the people. The day of election 
appointed for the ratification found this force stationed at the polls, and 
the refractory people mastered and quelled into silence. Union men 
were threatened in th^ir lives if they should dare to vote against the 
ordinance ; and an influential leader in the movement, but recently a 
Senator of the United States, wrote and published a letter, hinting to 
those who might be rash enough to vote against secession, that they 
must expect to be driven out of the State.* Of course, tke ratification 

*Keferenceis liere made to James M. Mason, uow the Rebel Commissioner to 
London. His letter is dated " Winchester, Va., May 16, 1S61,"' and was published 
in the Wincheatev Virfjiiiinn. Id this letter he says : "The ordinance of secession 
^vithd^•ew the State of Virginia from the Union, with all the consequences resulting 
from the separation. It annulled the Constitution and the laws of the United 
States within the limits of this State, and absolved the citizens of Virginia from all 
obligations and obedience to them." This is a little remarkable, when the Conven- 
tion provided that the ordinance should be submitted to a vote of the people of the 
State. But we see from another paragraph of the same letter, what sort of an elec- 
tion this was to be: " If it be asked, what are those to do who in their consciences 
cannot vote to separate Virginia from the United States, the answer is simple and 
plain : honor and duty alike require that they should not vote on the question : if 
they retain such opinions, they must leave the State." All very " simple" and very 
"plain ;■■ and the plan was very faitlifuUy executed. 
9* 



20 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

found no opposition in any doubtful county. * * * My object is to 
show that the whole secession movement was planned and conducted 
m the spirit of headlong revolution and premeditated war. In Ten- 
nessee the proceeding was even less orderly than in Virginia. In 
Missouri it was no better. Tlie attempt was made to carry Kentucky 
and Maryland by the same arts and the same frauds, but utterly failed. 
Maryland has repudiated secession and its abettors with a persistent 
and invincible loyalty. Kentucky, under severe trial and in the actual 
contest of civil war, has bravely and honorably preserved her faith and 
repelled every assault. 

We have given this long extract, not because any proof 
is wanting of the fraud and violence by which the rebel- 
lion was inaugurated, but to show in these graphic details 
what loyal men all through the South suffered at the outset 
for opposing the insane movement. This authority is 
unquestionable. The extract is taken from the National 
Intelligencer, of Washington, D. C, of Feb. 23, 1864. 
The editor indorses the writer as "evincing ability, sa- 
gacity, and fine analysis, in laying bare the secret springs 
of the great insurrection," and says he is a " Southern gen- 
tleman who for many years occupied with distinction a 
seat in the National Legislature, and who subsequently 
held a responsible post in the administration of an impor- 
tant Executive Department of the Government."* 

* At a Union meeting in Huntsville, Alabama, on the 5th of March, 18G4, the 
Hon. Jeremiah Clemens, formerly a United States Senator from that State, addressed 
the meeting, and said " he would tell the Alabamians how their State was got out 
of the Union." He proceeded to say : " In 1861, shortly after the Confederate Gov- 
ernment was put in operation, I was in the city of Montgomery. One day I stepped 
into the office of the Secretary of War, General Walker, and found there, engaged in 
a very excited discussion, Mr. Jefferson Davis, Mr. Memminger, Mr. Benjamin, Mr. 
Gilchrist, a member of our Legislature from Lowndes county, and a number of other 
prominent gentlemen. They were discussing the propriety of immediately opening 
fire on Fort Sumter, to which General Walker, the Secretary of War, appeared to 
be opposed. Mr. Gilchrist said to him : 'Sir, unless you sprinkle blood in the face 
of the people of Alabama tJiey will be back in the old Union in less than ten days!' 
The next day General Beauregard opened the batteries on Sumter, and Alabama was 
saved to the Confederacy." Another distinguished statesman says upon the same gen- 



PKOSECUTED BY CKUELTY AND TERROR. 2 J 
PROSECUTED BY CRUELTY AXD TERROR. 

G. This rebellion wns not only initiated by fraud and 
violence, through the means by which its ordinances of 
secession were enacted, but during every stage of its pro- 
gress, from its birth to the present hour, it has heen prose- 
cuted icith the most atrocious cruelty toicards those in the 
revolted States who have dared to oppose the designs of 
its leaders. 

From its inception till now, the world has been told by 
public men and by the organs of public opinion in the 
South, that the people were a unit in support of the 
rebellion, while the world has all the time had the most 
certain knowledge that this was only a stupendous false- 
hood, concocted and persisted m for political purposes. 
The evidence of this is overwhelming, and is sustained by 
facts which meet us at every stage of the movement. 

The people have heard so much during the present 
year, since the opening of the rebel Congress in December 
last, of the sweeping conscription measures by which all 
from sixteen to fifty-five capable of bearing arms have 
been driven into the army, and of the total repudiation 
of plighted faith in forcing those to enter it who had 
secured legal exemption by furnishing substitutes, and 
other oppressive acts of a like character, that they forget 
that impressments into their armies by the most violent 
means have been a marked feature of their recruiting ser- 
vice from the beginning of the war. Looking back over 

cral subject : " Future history will record, tlia*-, perhaps with two exceptions, the 
ordinance of secession would not have been carried in any of the seceding States, if 
the pexjple could have been permitted a fair, uncontrolled election, by ballot upon it. 
But they were overwhelmed by fraud and force ; and then they were told, accord- 
ing to the Improved theory of State rights, that whenever a majorfty of a State had 
resolved to commit treason, the minority were bound not only to submit, but to 
share the sin and shame. Those whom argument failed to conviqce, the military 
despotism had silenced, for the time being." 



22 CHAEACTER OF THE KEBELLIOX. 

the events of tho spring and summer of 1861, — a period 
when rebel fervor was at its heiglit, and when the 
expectation of speedy succe s to their arms was upon the 
lips of all their leaders, — we find that rigorous impress- 
ments pervaded all parts of the South. The proof is fur- 
nished in the Southern papers of that period, hut we can- 
not occupy space with the details. 

But these are among the least offensive measures which 
were taken to crush out loyalty to the United States. The 
tens of thousands of individuals and families who have 
been forced to flee for life, leaving home and property, 
penniless and friendless, and the many who have remained 
only to suffer imprisonment, indignity, and death, are facts 
well attested, and have occurred from the beginning of the 
revolt down to a late period. 

As early as August 14th, 1861, after multitudes had fled 
from rebel tyranny, Jefierson Davis issued the following 
edict of banishment : 

I do hereby warn and require every male citizen of the United 
States, of the age of fourteen years and upwards, now within tho Con- 
federate States, and adhering to the Government of the United States, 
and acknowledging the authority of the same, and not being a citizen 
of the Confederate States, to leave within forty days after the date of 
this proclamation. And I do warn all persons above described who 
shall remain within the Confederate States, after the expiration of tho 
said period of forty days, that they will be held as alien enemies. 

All know what followed tlie issuing of this decree. The 
North was soon filled with Southern refugees. A well- 
informed witness declared at the time that "two hundred 
thousand men, women, and children, in the single State 
of Tennessee, had thus received ' notice to quit,' the most 
of them thus driven from the land that gave them birth." 

The persons who have thus suflered persecution at home, 
and b mishment, are from every rank in life, from the 



PROSECUTED BY CRUELTY AND TERROR. 23 

mechanic and day-Liborer, to those in all the professions : 
clergymen, lawyers, physicians, members of Congress, 
United States Senators, and judges of the highest courts of 
the State and of the Nation. In the spring and summer 
of 1861, Senator Johnson and Messrs. Etheridge, Bridges, 
Maynard, Nelson, all then or pieviously members of Con- 
gress, were compelled to flee from the single State of Ten- 
nessee, or, being out of the State, found it unsafe to return. 
Judges Catron and Trigg, of the same State, with others 
of th» bench, the former of the United States Supreme 
Court, were treated in like manner. Judge Catron did 
not dare, nor was he permitted, to visit Ids home in Nash- 
ville until Middle Tennessee was repossessed by the 
United States forces. Judge Wayne, also of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, whose residence was in 
Georgia, being in attendance upon his official duties at 
Washington when the rebellion began, and determined to 
remain ioyal to his oath and his country, has never since 
ventured to visit his State, and will not be able to do so 
except under the protection of the arms of the Union. 
The only crime for which these men were exiled from the 
land of their l)irth, and for which others have suffered 
imprisonment at home, was their determination to adhere to 
the Government which had always given them protection, 
their regard for their solemn oaths of office, and their un- 
willingness to yield to the demands of a godless rebellion. 
If persons of such distinction can be so treated, and 
were so treated at the beginning of the revolt, no large 
amount of credulity is demanded tobeUeve that thousands 
of less note have been subjected to the most cruel doom. 
We have undoubted proof of this, relating to every period 
since the beginning of the war, and we fairly infer that 
there are multitudes of like cases of winch the public ni-ver 
hear. 



24 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION". 

Among numerous testimonies at hand, we give an illus- 
tration of this point from the address of Governor Hamil- 
ton, of Texas, to the people of that State, issued in January 
last. We too well know that Texas does not stand solitary 
and alone in the work here graphically described. The 
same tale is true of every rebel State. Governor Hamilton 
begins by barely referring to his own treatment; 

Citizens of Texas : Through the instrumentality of ambitious and 
designing men, you have been for more than two and a half years 
engaged in rebellion against the G-overnment of the United States. 
Hunted as a felon, and expelled from the State because I would not 
join the conspiracy to overthrow free government, I now, after an exile 
of eighteen months, return to it, charged with the duty of organizing 
such Provisional State Grovernment as may be best calculated to aid in 
restoring you to the blessings of civil liberty. "When you were forced, 
by a minority, into rebellion, you were in the enjoyment of every bless- 
ing ever conferred by civil government unon men. Not a single wrong 
had you ever suffered from the Government. * * * Martial law has 
been visited upon you, and in every town, and village, and neighborhood, 
some petty despot appointed, to whose edicts you were required to bow 
in meek submission. You have been denied the right to travel through 
the community near your homes, on the most necessary business, 
without the written permission of one of these tools of tyranny. You 
dare not convey to market the product of your farms and your 
labor without permission. Your wagons and teams have been seized by 
Government agents at home and on the road to market,in order to com- 
pel you to sell them your crops for a nominal price in worthless paper. 
No interest has been secure, and no right sacred. Law and order no 
longer exist among you. * * * The vicious and depraved, the mur- 
derers and rufl&ans of the country, are banded together in secret socie- 
ties, knovTi as "Sons of the South," and are from day to day sitting in 
judgment on the lives of the best citizens of the State. Three tJiousand 
of your citizens have perished became they loved good government^ and peace, 
and order in society — perished as felons. They have been hung, shot, and 
literally butchered; they have been tortured, in many instances, beyond any 
thing known in savage warfare. Uncertainty, and gloom, and despair, are 
resting upon you to-day like the frown of God. Are you in love with 
tills, and do you desire it to continue ? 



PROSECUTED BY CRUELTY AND TERROR. 25 

He then draws a picture of the condition of things just 
before the rebelHon began, from which we take a single 
jDaragraph : 

In our own State, during the summer and fall of 1860, according to the 
puhlisJied account of the murderers themselves, two hundred and fiftj of our 
free citizens were hung as felons, and thousands driven from their homes 
and compelled to leave the State, became they were suspected of infi- 
delity to slavery. And, finally, gathering temerity from its successful war 
upon the rights and lives of the citizens, it lifted its unholy hand to 
destroy the Government to whose protection it owed its power. 

We close these iUustrations of rebel cruelty by one more 
quotation. It is from the distinguished Southern states- 
man referred to under the foregoing head, and commended 
so highly by the Natloyial Intelligencer^ a journal that will 
not be suspected of favoring what is called " radicalism." 
He is speaking chiefly of the violence practised towards 
loyal citizens of Virginia, and says : 

"What argument can Virginia, for example, make in favor of a revolt 
against the authority of the Union, that may not be used with tenfold 
force by her own western counties to justify a revolt against her? Vir- 
ginia herself had really no definable grievance against the Union. 
* * She has never yet indicated a single item of grievance resulting 
from the acts of the Federal Government. In fact, that Government 
has always been, in great part, in her own hands, or under the control 
of her influence. If she has not been happy and prosperous it is sim- 
ply her own fault. I mean to say, slie has no cause whatever to excuse 
her rebellion against the Union. Yet she revolted ; we may say, gave to 
the revolution a countenance and support, without which it would have 
speedily sunk into a futile enterprise. Having come to it, she assumed 
the right to compel her unwilling citizens to cast their fives and fortunes 
into the same issue. A large portion of her people, comprising the 
inhabitants of many counties in the mountain region of the Alleghanies, 
have always been distinguished, — as, indeed, seems to be the charac- 
teristic of all our mountain country, — for their strong attachment to the 
Union. These people have an aversion to slaves, and have been steadily 
intent upon establishing and expanding a system of free labor. They 
have, therefore, very little in common, either of sentiment or interest, 



26 CHAEACTEE OP THE REBELLION. 

with the governing power of the State. When, therefore, the question 
of secession was submitted to them, they voted against it. From that 
moment they were marked, and when the State, under the control of its 
lowland interest, raised the banner of revolt, its first movement was to 
invite the Southern army to occupy the mountain districts, to overawe 
and drive the people there, not only into submission to the dominant 
power of the State, but into active hostility against the Union. To this 
end these loyal people were pursued with a bitter persecution, harried 
by a ruffian soldiery, hunted from their homes into the mountain fast- 
nesses; their dwellings burned ; their crops destroyed ; their fields laid 
waste, and every other cruelty inflicted upon them to which the savage 
spirit of revolution usually resorts to compel the assent of those who 
resist its command. The iuhabitants of these beautiful mountain val- 
leys are a simple, brave, and sturdy people ; and all these terrors were 
found insufficient to force them into an act of treason. They refused, 
and in their turn revolted against this execrable tyranny and drew their 
swords in favor of the Union. What more natural or righteous than 
such a resistance? And yet, Virginia affects to consider this the 
deepest of crimes, and is continually threatening vengeance against what 
she calls these rebels — Virginia, the rebel, denouncing rebellion 1 Her 
own plea is that she has only seceded^ but Western Virginia reheU — 
there is a great difference. 

When it is considered that unnumbered multitudes all 
through the South have been subjected to similar cruelties 
for the crime of loyalty to the Government, and for refus- 
ing to be driven into treason and rebellion against it, — and 
■when this is contrasted with the " leniency" of our Govern- 
ment, which, as Governor Hamilton says, is without a 
parallel in the history of nations dealing with treason and 
traitors, — it places the unblushing cruelty of the Southern 
leaders and their minions out of the pale of all comparison 
with that of any tyrannical power, claiming to be civilized 
and Christianized, which the world has ever known.^' 

* In his address to the people of Texas, Governor Hamilton truly says : " In the history 
of the world, there cannot be found one example of a government dealing with a 
rebellion against its rightful authority with the mercy and leniency which haA^e charac- 
terized the United States In this war. Out of the multiplied thousands who have 
been taken in arms against the Governmeut. no^ 'yne has been made to suffer for his 



ITS DESOLATIO:Nr OF THE COUNTRY. 27 

ITS DESOLATION OF THE COUNTRY. 

7. We pass over some of the other characteristics of the 
rebellion, with a bare mention of them : the wide-spread 
desolation which it has brought upon the whole disloijul 
region^ to every interest^ material^ moral, social^ and reli- 
gious ; bringing to premature and dishonored graves the 
flower of a whole generation of their young men, with 
multitudes of aged fathers and stripling boys, pressed into 
their armies by the merciless conscription ; leaving their 
land filled with widows and orphans, to mourn and weep 
out the remainder of an embittered life ; the threat- 
ening of wide-spread starvation within their borders ; the 
laying waste of nearly the whole producing regions of 
agriculture, from the desolation which more or less always 
follows the track of armies in civil war ; the disbanding 
of their institutions of learning of the higher grades, to 
fui-nish material for their armies ;* the injury which, from 

treason. How has it been in Texas and throughout the South? Hecatombs of 
TicLims have been offered upon the altar of rebellion ! The men who are responsible 
to societj'and to God for the blood of a thousand good citizens, are those who are 
praiing about the tyranny of the President and the Government of the United 
States." 

* We may perhaps take this as a specimen of what has befallen institutions of 
learning at the South. If this is true of North Carolina, where there has always 
been gn-at disaffection with the rebel leaders, we may readily infer the condition 
of colleges in other Sti-.tes : '• The effect of the rebellion on Southern Colleges is well 
Illustrated by the case of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1S60, 
it had four hundred and thirty students ; in 1S63, but sixty-three, nearly all of whom 
■were too young or physically incapacitated for service. In ISGO, eighty-four young 
men graduated, of whom one-seventh are known to have fallen in battle. Of the 
eight who ranked highest in the class, four are in their graves, a fifth is a wound- 
ed prisoner, and the others are in the army. Of the Freshman Class of that 
year, eighty in number, only one remained to graduate, and even he had been in the 
army, and was discharged for bad health. Though none of the fourteen members 
of the Faculty were liable to conscription, five enlisted, one of whom was killed; 
another has been taken prisoner ; the third was severely wounded, and the fourth 
has a ruined constitution. Every son capable of service of the remaining nine, 
eight in number, entered the service, and two of them have been mortally wounded. 
Fifteen young men of the village, being more than half of the whole, have perished 
in battle."'— iVe It) York paper. 



28 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

the nature of the case, must have befallen the churches, 
and every interest of religion ; and the inevitable condi- 
tion of the South, in all these respects, for many years to 
come, which no pen can portray; — together with the 
blighting influence upon both sections of the country 
which must ever attend such a war, in the burdens of tax- 
ation, which must be felt for generations to come ; in the 
social demoralization of the people at large, the corruption 
of public men, the familiarizing of the mind of the nation, 
and especially of the young, with scenes of bloodshed and 
carnage, and the desire for other wars, all which are the 
common fruits of all such conflicts ; the like destruction, in 
the North as in the South, of the thousands of the noble 
and the brave who have fallen in battle, with the agony 
which has been brought upon the households of the whole 
territory of the Union ; and the social alienation and bit- 
terness which the strife has engendered, not only between 
the two sections of the country embroiled, but in many 
instances between those of the same household, both 
!N^orth and South. 

This is but the bare mention, — and by no means all, — 
of that heritage of woes, now pressing, and long to be 
continued, every one of which is justly chargeable to 
this rebellion. 

IT AIMED TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT. 

8. Another characteristic of the rebellion is seen in 
iDhat it aimed at first to accomplish. 

Much declamation has been expended by public men 
and public journals, in both sections of the country, be- 
cause the people in rebellion are not allowed to have their 
independence and separate nationality. But it was not 
for a separate Confederacy that the rebel leaders first in- 
augurated secession. They aimed to prevent the instal- 



IT AIMED TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT. 29 

lation of the present Administration, to seize tlie Govern- 
ment and the public offices and archives at Washington, 
and by a coup de tnain to estabHsh themselves in power 
as the legitimate succession to the present Government, 
and to impress upon it that character which they have 
given to their own Constitution ; while their independence, 
as a separate nation, was resolved upon only in the event 
and as the result of the failure of their original plan. 

That this was the programme laid down by the rebel 
leaders is the very general conviction of the intelligent and 
loyal people of the country, and many facts fully warrant 
this conclusion. It was the opinion freely expressed by 
members of Congress and other public men in their pri- 
vate circles, during the last two months of Mr. Buchanan's 
administration ; and it is believed that to General Winfield 
Scott, more than to any other man, is the country indebted 
for the frustration of the scheme. The scattering of the 
small forces then composing the army of the United 
States to distant military posts, and the sending of the 
vessels of the navy to distant seas, by the respective Sec- 
retaries of the War and Navy Departments ; the speedy 
gathering of a few hundred regulars, with several batteries 
of artillery, at Washington, by order of General Scott, 
when he apprehended danger, especially at the time the 
electoral votes w^ere to be opened and counted ; the wrath- 
ful speeches of Senator Mason, of Virginia, and other 
Southern statesmen, when they saw their plans foiled, be- 
cause " the two Houses of Congress were surrounded by 
armed soldiers, as though they were sitting in an Austrian 
capital ;" the subsequent well-matured plot to assassinate 
the President elect, as he should pass through Baltimore ;* 

* In a speech in the United States House of Representatives, April 8, 1864, Mr. 
Long, of Cincinnati, said: "A little over three years ago, the present occupant of the 
Presidential Mansion, at the other end of the Avenue, cnme into this city under cover 



3 ) CIIAKACTER OF THE EEBELLIOX. 

the vigilant preparations deemed essential at the time of 
Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, when the troops were station- 
ed at diiFerent points in the city, and Generals Scott and 
Wool .and other officers stood ready to mount at a mo- 
ment's warning ; these are all well-remembered facts, and 
the measures then taken by the illustrious head of the 
army reveal his sagacity and patriotism, and illustrate, in 
their warding off the threatened evil, the debt of grati- 
tude due him from his countrymen. 

The scheme of seizing the Government was not aban- 
doned on the successful inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. On 
the evening of the 12th of April, 1861, when the citizens 
of Montgomery, then the rebel capital, werQ rejoicing in 
the prospect of Fort Sumter's speedy fill, the bombard- 
ment being then in progress. General Walker, the rebel 
Secretary of War, made the following declarations in a 
public speech : " That before many hours the flag of the 

of night, disguised in plaid cloak and Scotch cap, lest, as was feared by his friends, 
be might have received a warmer greeting than would have been agreeable, on his 
way through Baltimore, at the hands of the constituents of the gentleman from 
Maryland." Mr. Long is one of the opponents of the present Administration. The 
Albciiiy Evening Journal speaks of the contemplated assassination, and of the 
measures taken to prevent it, on the part of the President's friends, as follows : 
"They employed a detective of great experience, who was engaged at Baltimore in 
the business some three weeks prior to Mr. Lincoln's arrival there, employing both 
men and women to assist him. Shortly after coming to Baltimore, the detective 
discovered a combination of men banded together under a solemn oath to assassinate 
the President elect. * * * it was arranged, in case Mr. Lincoln should pass 
safely over the railroad to Baltimore, that the conspirators should mingle with the 
crowd which might surround his carriage, and by pretending to be his friends, be 
enabled to approach his person, when, upon a signal from their leader, some of them 
would shoot at Mr. Lincoln with their pistols, and others would throw into his carriage 
hand-grenades filled with detonating powder, similar to those xised in the attempted 
assassination of the Emperor Louis Napoleon. It was intended that in the confusion 
which should result from this attack, the assailants should escape to a vessel waiting 
in the harbor to receive them, and be carried to Mobile, in the seceding State of 
Alabama." Then, speaking of Mr. Lincoln, the Journal says: "The party then 
took berths in the sleeping-car [at Philadelphia], and, without change of cars, pas- 
sed directly through to Washington, where they arrived at the usual hour. Mr. 
Lincoln wore no disguise whatever, but journeyed in an ordinary travelling 
dress." 



IT AIMED TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT. 31 

Conrecleracy would float over the fortress ; and no man 
could tell where the war this day commenced would end, 
but he would prophesy that the flag Avhich now flaunts the 
breeze here, would float over the dome of the old capitol at 
WasJii'gton before the first of May.^'' This speech of 
General Walker struck the key-note which was imme- 
diately echoed by the newspapers throughout the seceded 
States. Though Virginia had not yet seceded, the papers 
of that State sounded it. Tlie Richmond Enquirer of April 
13th, the day of the fall of Fort Sumter, had the following : 
" Nothing is more probable than that President Davis will 
soon march an army through North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia to Washington. Those of our volunteers who desire 
to join the Southern army as it shall pass through onr 
borders, had better organize at once for the purpose." 
This was published nearly a week before the Virginia 
Convention passed the ordinance of secession, and foi-ty 
dnys before the people were to vote on the ordi- 
nance. This was also two days before President Lincoln 
issued his Proclamation (dated April 15th), calling for 
troops, and before it was known, either North or South, 
how the intelligence of the taking of Fort Sumter 
would afiect either the Government or the people. Mr. 
Stephens, the rebel Vice-President, soon afterwards 
uttered the same sentiment respecting the taking of 
Washington, in a public speech at Richmond, on his arri- 
val there before the secession of Virginia, and before the 
ordinance had passed the Convention, when on a mission 
to conclude a " military league" between that State and 
the Southern Confederacy. 

There is nothing clearer in the early history of the 
rebellion, than that the primary plan of its leaders was to 
overthrow the Administration at Washington, to usurp its 
power and authority, and to install the rebel Government 



32 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

as its legitimate successor. This from the first was the 
battle-cry of their rulers, their armies, and their people. It 
is only because they were foiled in their original purpose 
that they have been content to seek to establish their sep- 
arate independence. 

POPULAR GOVERNMENT UNIVERSALLY ENDANGERED. 

9. Another thing settled in the character of this rebel- 
lion, is, that its success would have destroyed the hope for 
popidar government throughout the world. 

A successful rebellion resulting in the overthrow of any 
other government on earth would be of little consequence 
in tlie great scale of human interests when poised against 
such a result to the Government of the United States. 
This is illustrated in the deep anxiety with which the con- 
test has been watched on both sides of the Atlantic and 
by the people of every nation. The aristocracies of the 
Old World have aided the rebellion as far as they liave 
deemed it safe, and have earnestly desired our dismember- 
ment and downfall. They have felt that in such an issue 
their own power would be more secure. From the great 
heart of " the peoples" alone has there been for us a single 
genuine throb of sympathy. The only notable exception 
to this among the rulers in the monarchies of Europe is 
that of the Russian Empire. Even many of the middle 
classes of the nations of Westera Europe, and among them 
many of the merchant princes of her marts of commerce, 
have given their good wishes and their active aid and 
their stores of gold to the rebellion, making a gain out of 
our national peril. 

But the millions of the real people have desired our 
success and deserve our grateful remembrance. They feel 
that their own interests are bound up in oui- triumph. 
Wheu, therefore, the nation shall come out of this strife 



POPULAli GOVEKNMEXT ENDANGERED. 33 

successful, they will feel as do we, that what the nations 
of the earth have ever regarded as but "the American 
experiment," will be settled in favor of popular govern- 
ment for all time to come. One universal shout of re- 
joicing will then go up from the down-trodden millions 
of the world, and at its reverberations among the habita- 
tions of men, tyrants will everywhere tremble as they 
have never done before. 

Among the characteristics, therefore, which stamp this 
rebellion with peculiar odium, is the fact not only that it 
is made against popular government, but in its success the 
last hope of liberty would have perished from among men. 
jSTo people could have dared reasonably to hope for suc- 
cess in an experiment of free institutions after ours should 
have failed, commenced as it was under such favorable 
auspices, and having had such prosperity in all that can 
make a people great and glorious for nearly three genera- 
tions. 

It is too well known for doubt that a part of the original 
scheme of the rebel leaders was to establish an aristoc- 
racy, and perhaps a monarchy, and if we may judge from 
very recent utterances the plan is not abandoned. To this 
end, as well as to secure their independence, they have 
sought an alliance with several monarchical powers, and 
have been willing to place themselves under their protec- 
tion without much scruple about conditions provided their 
independence could be gained. 

Should the rebellion therefore succeed, and the plan 
of the Southern oligarchy be consummated, popular gov- 
ernment throughout the world w^ould thereby receive 
a double blow, in the dismemberment of that system 
of government, where it has now its fairest illustra- 
tion, and in the establishment of aristocratic institutions 
in its stead over a large portion of the territory of the 



34 CHARACTER OF THE REBELLION. 

United States, and over several millions of the people now 
embraced within its leoritimate rule.* 

TO PERPETUATE NEGRO SLAVERY. 

10. And finally, this is a rebellion whose chief prompt- 
ing impulse, at its inception and through its whole pro- 
gress, has been the security^ the expansion of the area^ and 
the perpetuation^ of human bondage. 

That the slavery of the negro race, as the stimulating 
power, is the foundation on which the whole superstruc- 
ture of this rebellion rests, is a fact patent to the eyes of 
all men. But as we reserve this point for a separate 
chapter, to be canvassed when we come to speak of the 
causes of the rebellion, we shall not dwell upon it here. 
We barely mention it now as completing the summation 
and forming the climax in the catalogue of those elements, 
— all of which we have not attempted to enumerate, — which 
give a special character to the rebellion, and stamp it as 
monstrous and diabolical without a parallel in the history 
of mankind. 

When we speak of negro slavery as being at the bottom 
of the rebellion, we are aware that this is denied. The 
proof of our position, however, to be given hereafter, will 
be found in Southern testimony which cannot be confuted. 
We are also aware that other causes are assigned, the 
chief of which are : that the rebellion is the scheme of dis- 

* No man better understands the character and aims of the rebellion and its lead- 
ers than Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, a c^indidate for the Vice-Presidency. In a 
speech at Nashville, June 10, 1864, he said : " One of the chief elements of this rebel- 
lion, is the opposition of the slave aristocracy to being ruled by men who have risen 
from the ranks of the people. This aristocracy hated Mr. Lincoln because he was of 
humble origin, a rail-splitter in early life. One of them, the private secretary of 
Howell Cobb, s:iid to me one day, after a long conversation, ' We people of the South 
will not submit to be governed by a man who has come up from the ranks of the 
common people, as Abe Lincoln has.' He uttered the essential feeling and spirit of 
this Southern rebellion." 



TO PERPETUATE ISTEGRO SLAVERY. 35 

appointed and ambitious politicians ; a desire for an inde- 
pendent nationality; a wish to found an aristocracy, or a 
monarchy, or both; a strike for free trade, and to be rid 
of Northern competition ; a vindication of the doctrine of 
State rights ; a jealousy and chagrin at ISTortliern growth 
and j)rosperity, in comparison with Southern ; or, these 
and other similar caused all combined ; and that slavery, 
and the Presidential election of 1860, were "a mere pre- 
text." We grant the substantial truth of what are here 
given as auxiliary causes of the rebellion ; and yet, it is 
further true, as we shall see, that it is Negro Slavery, in 
its emoluments in the Rebel States, in its fears of en- 
croachment and apprehended dangers, and especially in 
its modern garb as "divine," and a political and social 
" good in itself" to all concerned, that underlies all other 
causes, and gives the mtal and essential force to carry these 
desires and aspirations into execution in the form of open 
rebellion. 
3 



36 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 



CHAPTER II. 

CAUSE OP THE EEBELLIOK 

It is among the marvels which our civil war has exhib- 
ited, that there should be a difterence of opinion concern- 
ing the reasons which have prompted the rebellion now in 
progress against the Government of the United States. 
But if we may judge from the speeches of public men in 
Congress, in State Legislatures, upon the stump, from the 
messages of Governors of States, from the resokitions of 
political bodies, and from the current literature of public 
journals, — all confined, however, to the loyal States, but 
found in every stage of the contest from the beginning till 
now, — we see that there is as wide a variance upon this 
simple point as can be found upon any other question of 
fact or policy touching the rebellion, or any other matter 
concerning human interests upon which men are commonly 
divided. Upon discovering this, one might be led to the 
conclusion that there are inherent difficulties in the solu- 
tion of the case. But it is one of the plainest of all things 
connected with the whole movement, and it is quite re- 
markable that there should be disagreement upon it, at 
least among truly loyal men. 

SLAVERY THE CAUSE. 

As perfectly decisive of the difficulty, if there be any 
whatever, it is well known that in the Rebel States and 
among those engaged in the rebellion, there has been but 
one prime reason assigned for it from first to last, as put 
forth by their public men and echoed by all their organs 



SLAVERY THE CAUSE. 3T' 

of public opinion. This is so plainly true, and the reason 
itself is so plain and so plainly stated, that it would seem 
a little wonderful, did we not know too well the political 
corruption which abounds, that all men in the loyal States, 
including those who sympathize with the rebellion, should 
not be content to permit the rebel leaders to make their 
own statement of the case on this point, and to allow that 
statement to be true. With all the frenzied fury and dis- 
regard of truth which they have shown, and the want of 
sagacity and ordinary good sense which have characterized 
ten thousand things which they have said and done in the 
progress of their horrid work, we must certainly allow a 
sufficient method to their madness to suppose that they at 
least knew and could tell for what they rebelled. They 
probably did know; they certainly have told; and they 
all agree. 

In a word, they declare that it was for negro slavery 
that they rebelled : for its security against apprehended 
peril ; for its expansion into free territory, wherever their 
inchnations and interests might prompt them to carry it ; 
and for its perpetuation. This is what they universally 
present as the reason for their course, warranting, with 
certain discriminations, the concise remark we often hear, 
that " slavery is the cause of the rebellion," and that 
" slavery is the cause of the war." 

Here then we might rest and dismiss the case. But as 
this is a controverted point, we shall present the opposite 
view as held by rebel sympathizers and certain Union men, 
and then give the conclusive evidence which sustains the 
position we take, that it was in the interest of slavery alone 
that the rebellion was undertaken ; that " the duty" which 
devolved upon the South was " plain, of conserving and 
transmitting the system of slavery, with the freest scope 
for its natural development and extension." 



88 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 



AN OPPOSITE VIEW. 



Among other distinguished witnesses to the position, 
that to secure greater immunities to slavery was not the 
cause of the rebellion, is found the Hon. George Robertson, 
a former Chief- Justice of Kentucky, and a friend of the 
Union. In a series of elaborate papers on national affairs, 
published a few months since in the Louisville Journal^ he 
declared that it was not slavery, — " not security for an in- 
stitution that needed none better than the Constitution," — 
for which " the leading conspirators" rebelled ; but it was 
because the " South sought independence P He presents 
seven reasons, formally laid down, for this opinion, con- 
cludmg thus : "7th and lastly. Some of the leaders, with- 
out contradiction or dissent, said in Convention (we pre- 
sume the Judge refers to that of South Carolina), that they 
had been hatching independence for more than thirty years, 
and ridiculed the idea that autislaveryism, in any of its 
phases, was the cause of their secession." He elsewhere 
says: " Thus the treacherous and proscriptive concoctors 
of rebellion initiated this unholy war ; and hence some of 
them truly said in Convention, that the warfare waged by 
abolitionists against the institution of slavery and the 
security of slave property, was a ' God-send' to the advo- 
cates of Southern independence."* 

* We deem it but just to Judge Eobcrtson to give his seven propositions together 
and in full : " That the leading conspirators South sought independence, — and not 
security for an institution that needed none better than the Constitution they so long 
conspired to destroy, — should not be doubted for these among other reasons: 1st. 
They knew that, from time to time, they had obtained every supplemental security 
•which they had asted or desired excepting only the humbug of ' protection' in North- 
ern Territories, where slavery could never long or usefully exist, and where majori- 
ties of the inhabitants would not want it. 2d. They knew that no person claimed 
for (Congress power to abolish or disturb slavery in the States, and that Congressional 
non-intervention in Territories, — which they had secured as far as useful to the South 
by the Missouri Compromise of 1S20, and everywhere by the -finality' of iSoO,— Avas 
all they wanted or had any right to expect 3d. They wantonly threw away these 



AN OPPOSITE VIEW. 39 

Our space will not allow us to quote more at large from 
the Judge ; but as we have said he is a Union man, we give 
a sentence or two among many to show this, and to show 
his view of slavery as an institution, and that he would not 
allow it to come into competition with the preservation of 
the Union : " I am not, nor ever was, pro-slavery in feeling 
or in principle. I would delight to see all men free. But 
I know that this is impossible until the different races ap- 
proximate more nearly to moral equaUty." Speaking of 
the " less ambitious masses" in the South, who " rushed 
inconsiderately into the maelstrom of this shocking rebel- 
lion," he says : " They ought to have known better, and 
set up for themselves. But, had they not been deluded, 

securities for the normal expansion of slavery by their suicidal abrogation in 1854 of 
these pledges of national faith, thereby indicating that their agitations of moot ques- 
tions of slavery were intended, not for that institution or its incidents, but only for 
independence and power. 4th. They knew, that, before President Lincoln's inaugu- 
ration, Congress had organized all the new Territories without any interdiction of 
slavery, and proposed also an amendment to the Constitution expressly and irrevo- 
cably providing against any Congressional interference AXith slavery in any State; 
and they knew that the incoming President and party were committed, by their 
Chicago platform, against all such intervention; and, moreover, knowing that a 
majority of Congress and of the Supreme Court were on their side, enough of the 
Southern members of Congress abdicated to give the Republican party a majority, 
thus showing that they were plotting pretexts for revolt ; not for security to slavery, 
but for independence and a different form of government 6th. They knew or 
ought to have known that their peculiar institution would be safer and more peace- 
ful under our National Constitution binding on all the people, North, as well as 
South, than under a 'compact' of Confederation by 'sovereign States,' without a 
semblance of legal obligation on any people or States not parties to it. 6th. They 
wantonly destroyed the unity and nationality of their Democratic ixirty in 1S60, and 
thereby promoted Mr. Lincoln's election, which they preferred to that of Douglas or 
Bell, and then made that election a prominent pretext for secession. 7th and lastly. 
Some of the leaders, without contradiction or dissent, said in Convention that they 
had been hatching independence for more than thirty years, and ridiculed the idea 
that antislaveryism, in any of its phases, was the cause of th&ir secession.''''— Zouis- 
•ville Journal, Oct. 19, 1S63. Many persons at the North, and some papers, both 
secular and religious, embracing those who are loyal and disloyal, have most strenu- 
ously maintained that slavery was not the cause of the rebellion ; that it was not 
to render it more secure against supposed aggressions that the States seceded; that 
this Avas " a mere pretext." We shall see the fallacy of this position from testimonj' 
which cannot be overthrown. 



40 CAIfSE OF THE REBELLION. 

and the issue had really been between the Union and 
slavery, even then they ought, for their own welfare, to 
have stood by the Union, which would surely be better 
without slavery than could be slavery without such a 
Union." 

Judge Robertson's position as to the ground of the 
rebellion is very much like that of some others among 
loyal men. We are not, at this point, concerned with the 
reasons which he gives for it, but rather with the question 
of its correctness. But before adducing the proof for a 
contrary position, we will state some of the obvious dis- 
criminations which should be borne in mind. 

IN WHAT SENSE SLAVERY IS THE CAUSE. 

When slavery is charged with having caused the rebel- 
lion and the war, no more can justly be meant than that 
it is the occasion of both. Nor is this all. It is scarcely 
just to hold the institution, as such, to this responsibility. 
It has been inade the occasion. Nor does this exhaust the 
proper distinctions of the case. It has been made the 
occasion only in the hands of wicked and designing men. 
Many slaveholders are as true and loyal to the Govern- 
ment, and have shown this during the whole progress of 
the rebellion, as any men in the country. Nor is this seen 
in the Border States only. If these designing men, 
whether open or secret rebels, are found among the slave- 
holders of every Border State, so also loyal slaveholders, 
who have been such from first to last, may probably be 
found in every seceded State. As our arms have advanced, 
this has been found true; not merely where men have 
avowed their loyalty in tlie hope of retaining their slaves, 
or of receiving compensation for them from the Govern- 
ment, but where some of the largest slaveholders have 
always retained their loyalty notwithstanding the terrors 



IN WHAT SENSE SLAVERY IS THE CAUSE. 41 

of rebel rule. We personally know such cases in the 
Southwestern States, those of men who have been obliged 
to keep silent, but who nevertheless have maintained their 
allegiance to the Government. It is also no doubt true, 
that many in those States who gave in their adhesion to 
the rebel leaders did so under duress, to save property and 
life, and who may therefore be regarded, without any 
straining of that charity and patriotism which both moral 
and political justice should extend to them, as truly loyal 
men. It would be among the strangest of all phenomena 
if these things were not so. It would be tantamount to 
saying that all men in the South conceded the superior 
wisdom and approved the measures of the rebel leaders, 
and sustained them on these grounds ; whereas, it is known 
that from the first, many men in the seceded States, far 
more sagacious and less blinded by ambition than those 
who assumed the control of affairs, warned the people 
against rebellion, pointed out the failure of their schemes, 
declared the falsity of their prophecies, foretold the ruin 
which would come upon their section of the country, and 
the result has already vindicated their sagacity and sealed 
their patriotism. It is therefore not just to hold the insti- 
tution of slavery, as such, — embracing, of consequence, 
all slaveholders, — responsible, either for the rebellion or 
the war. 

What is true is this : that ambitious men, fearing with- 
out just cause that the Administration now in power, and 
the party that had put it in power, designed to destroy 
slavery in the whole country, — or, if not believing this, 
pretending at least to beheve it, and taking this ground 
before the people, and convincing large numbers that this 
was their design, — induced the States to rebel, that they 
might give to the institution greater expansion, security, 
and power, and, with God's permission, perpetuate it for- 



42 CAUSE OF THE EEBELLION. 

ever. This was substantially the position taken by lead- 
ing men, the controllers of public opinion, in both Church 
and State. 

MODERN VIEWS AISTD POWER OF SLAVERY. 

It is among the clearest facts known, that within the 
period of some thirty years or more, a total revolution had 
taken place in the Southern mind, extending to almost the 
entire people, regarding the status of slavery as an institu- 
tion, embracing its political, social, and moral character 
and relations. The causes of this change were, in part, 
the enormous pecuniary profits of the institution, which 
led political economists and statesmen to defend and com- 
mend it, and thus to repudiate the views of the fathers of 
the Republic ; and, in part, the teachings of the ministers 
of religion, who had discovered new light in interpreting 
the word of God, Avhich led them to defend and commend 
it as a Divine Ordinance, and thus to repudiate the views 
of the fathers of the American Church. And it is a fact 
of marked significance, that, in this change of opinion, the 
clergy, in many distinguished instances, led the way, and 
they are no doubt justly held to a higher responsibility for 
it than any other class of men. They will not of course 
deem this any disparagement, although they might decline 
the distinction here given them, for they claim to have 
done a good work. Of the reality of this change, and who 
are mainly responsible for it, we shall give the evidence in 
due time. 

This revolution in Southern opinion, made slavery, in 
many important respects, a totally different afiair in South- 
ern society from what it had ever hitherto been regarded. 
It was so interwoven with its whole structure, was so com- 
pletely the basis of labor, in a section of country almost 
wholly agricultural, and brought to the coffers of the mas- 



MODERN VIEWS AND POWER OF SLAVERY. 43 

ter such untold wealth, that it had become the most vital 
element in Southern civilization.* It gave social position 
and political power. It prescribed customs to the house- 
hpld and gave laws to the State. It influenced all their 
svstems of education and made a tenet in their relio-ion. 
The mechanic and the day-laborer, the gentleman of leis- 
ure and the man of business, the lawyer and the physician, 
the judge and the clergyman, all professions and all insti- 
tutions, came under its sway and caUed it master. It was 
respectable, honorable, a necessity, divine. It had no 
traceable origin ; it had always existed. It was sanctioned 
by the law of nature, by the consent of all times and all 
peoples, and by the law of God. It had come from the 
Patriarchs, was embedded in the decalosfue, resfulated bv 
the institutions of Moses, sustained by the Prophets, vin- 
dicated by Christ and the Apostles. All this had become 
the staple of Southern thought, the touchstone of South- 
ern fidelity. It was promulgated in books and news- 
papers, harangued from the stump and in legislative halls, 
taught in the schools, pronounced in the courts, and 
preached from the pulpit. Southern society had become 
permeated with these views. It lived and breathed in this 
intellectual and moral atmosphere. The sentiments and 
feelings which such a system begat, sustained men through 
the activities of the day, gave them repose at night, and 
administered consolation in the hour of death. 

When matters had come to this pass, under the teach- 
ings of recent times and the golden reign of the Fibrous 
King, how was it possible for the leaders in such opinions 
to be content that slavery should remain in the strait- 
jacket put upon it by the fathers of the Republic ? How 

* "Must I pause to show how it (slavery) has fashioned our modes of life, and 
determined all our habits of thought and feeling, and moulded the very type of our 
civilization?" — Dr. Fahner, T1ianksgivi7ig Discourse^ New Orleans, l^oy. 29, 1S60. 

.3* 



44 



CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 



could they any longer revere the political maxims of 
Washington and Jefferson, Madison and Henry, any more 
than they could regard with favor their sentiments upon 
slavery ? The institution had become so important in their 
eyes that verily they thought the whole country was theirs ; 
that they could take their slaves to every State and plant 
them in every Territory ; that Congress was theirs, that 
the Presidency was theirs, that the Supreme Court was 
theirs ; that, indeed, the whole people were theirs, with 
the wealth, greatness, prosperity, and glory of the nation 
— in a word, that they had made them all.* 



* " The unexampled prosperity and growth of the United States, have been in exact 
accordance with the development of the slave population, the slave territory, and 
the slave products, cotton, rice, tobacco, sugar, and naval stores, of the South." — 
Dr. Smyth., of Charleston., S. C, in the Southern Presbyterian Review, April, 1863. 
Dr. Palmer, contrasting the North and the South, speaks of '' the exemplary patience 
with which she (the South) has endured a system of revenue legislation, flagrantly 
and systematically discriminating against her, and in favor of the North. But the 
abundant fertility of her soil has enabled her to grow rich, even whilst contributing 
two-thirds to the revenue of the Government." — Ibidem, April, 1S61. To show the 
absurdity of Dr. Palmer's statement, we only need to present the official figures. 
The " revenue" raised from imports will be a proper criterion ; and, with the excep- 
tion of the public lands, duties on foreign importations were almost the only source 
of ''revenue" to the General Government. We do not find in the Za^es^ census 
returns (for 1860) the amount so stated as readily to show what proportion was col- 
lected in the Free States and what in the Slave States; nor do we find, in any one 
year, returns from all the ports given in the tables. But in De Bow's " Compendium 
of the Seventh Census," the revenue for 1853, collected from the following ports, is 
stated. This is probably a proper standard for any year : 



PORTS IN FREE STATES. 

New York $38,289,341.58 

Boston 7,203,048.52 

Philadelphia 4,531,046.16 

San Francisco 1,794,140.68 

Portland 350,349.22 

Cincinnati 251,649.90 

Oswego 128,667.27 

New Haven 125,173.40 

Total, eight Free ports. .$52,679,416.73 



PORTS IN SLAVE STATES. 

New Orleans $2,628,421.32 

Baltimore 836,437.99 

Charleston 432,299.19 

St. Louis 294,790.78 

Savannah 125,755.86 

Mobile _ 102.981.47 

Richmond 73,992.98 

Louisville 4S,3QI.6T 

NorfuUc 31,255.51 

Total, nine Slave ports. ... $4,574,242.77 



TEOOF THAT SLAVERY IS THE CAUSE. 45 

When they at length found that the people of the whole 
kind had become aroused by then- aggressions, and in their 
sovereign majesty at the ballot-box, in November, 1 860, 
pronounced against these extravagant claims, they resolved 
on rebellion, in the mistaken interest of slavery, and be- 
lieved that they had only to do this to bring the whole 
civilized world to their feet. Every one who has been a 
close observer of passing events in Church and State for 
twenty years past, well knows that this is but a true pic- 
ture of the change which has taken place in the mind of 
the extreme Southern portion of the country. 

PROOF THAT SLAVERY IS THE CAUSE OFFICIAL TESTIMONY. 

It seems almost a work of supererogation to set forth 
the evidence of a fact so well known, that slavery, in the 
sense we have explained, caused the rebellion. Men might 
as well deny the testimony of their senses, — which do 



By the same " Compendium," the total of revenue collected, was, from " all other dis- 
tricts, $1,678,206.04," to be divided between Free and Slave ports. It thus appears, 
that, so far from the Slave States " contributing two-thirds to the revenue of the 
Government," they did not contribute one-thirteenth^ according to the above 
returns; and as De Bow was a ring-leader among the disunionists, at the very time 
he published this "Compendium," it is probable that Ms figures " don't lie." We 
are of course aware of the logic by which Dr. Palmer^s statement is supported by 
some writers (though he gives simply the naked aflirmation, as quoted), but it 
involves a greater absurdity than the statement itself. The revenue from foreign 
importations, comes, ultimately, from the consumer ; and it is said that the South 
consume the vast amount of foreign goods, and therefore pay the mass of the rev- 
enue. It is not so easy to determine this by exact data from figures, as it involves so 
many minute details. But when that large class of the "poor whites" in the Shive 
States who never see, much less wear or use a dollar's worth of foreign goods, is 
deducted from those who consume them, and then the latter are compared with the 
millions of the vastly preponderating population of the Free States who use foreign 
articles of every description, it is the most preposterous of all conclusions, — a sim- 
ple unaustained assertion, — to maintain that the consumption of imported goods in 
the Slave States comes within the longest cannon-range of the amount consumed in 
the Free States. Dr. Palmer is good at the " long-bow," and his unsustamed state- 
ment has been so ofcen made that many, both North and South, believe — or pretend 
to believe it. 



46 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 

sometimes deceive them, — and it is only because this is 
denied that we spend a moment in collating the proof. 

The seventh reason which Judge Robertson assigns for 
his position, that " some of the leaders" in the South Caro- 
lina Convention " ridiculed the idea" that slavery or anti- 
slavery " was the cause of their secession," is plausible, 
and would seem to be conclusive, had we not testi- 
mony which completely overwhelms it. We place over 
against the sayings of these men, whatever they may have 
uttered in loose and heated harangues, the solemn, delibe- 
rate, official act of the Convention itself, which was passed 
mianimoiisly. It sets forth, to use their own words, " the 
immediate causes which have led to this act" — the seces- 
sion of the State. After a long historical statement from 
their peculiar stand-point, and an argument to show that 
secession is authorized by the Constitution of the United 
States, they state the grievances which have impelled them 
to secede. There is not a solitary allusion in the ordi- 
nance of secession to grievances on any subject hut slavery. 
But the relation of the General and State Governments to 
that institution, and their apprehensions for the future, 
they argue at length. A sentence or two will show their 
position. 

Those States (the non-slaveholding) have assumed the right of decid- 
ing upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the 
rights of property estabhshed in fifteen of the States and recognized by 
the Constitution ; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery ; 
they have permitted the open estabhshment among them of societies, 
whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and eloin the property of 
the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thou- 
sands of our slaves to leave their homes ; and those who remain, have 
been incited by emissaries, books, and pictures, to servile insurrection. 
For twenty-five years this agitation has been steadily increasing, until 
it has now secured to its aid the power of the common Government. 
* * * On the 4th of March next tliis party will take possession of 



PROOF THAT SLAVERY IS THE CAUSE. 47 

the Government. It has announced that the South shall be excluded 
from the common territory, that the judicial tribunal shall be made sec- 
tional, and that a war must be waged against slavery until it shall cease 
throughout the United States. The guarantees of the Constitution will 
then no longer exist ; the equal rights of the States will be lost. The 
slaveholding States will no longer have the power of self-government, 
or self-protection, and the Federal Government will have become their 
enemy.* 

Whatever may be true about the justice of these 
charges, the proof is conclusive, from this official act, that 
slavery^ in its extravagant claims and unfounded fears, 
was at the bottom of the secession of South Carolina. 
This conclusion cannot be avoided, unless we take the 
ground, either that the men of that Convention did oiot 
know and were unanimously mistaken as to what their own 
complaints were, or that they were utterly hypocritical in 
stating them and are not to be believed at all, and that too 
in a document intended to vindicate their course before 
the world. 

The acts of secession, along with the other proceedings 
of the Conventions of the other rebel States, respectively, 

* This ordinance of the South Carolina Convention was passed "by a unanimous 
vote of one hundred and sixfy-nine," Dec. 20, 1860. The unscrupulous false- 
hoods solemnly declared in this official act, are palpable. The proof of several 
of them we have already given. We choose to speak plainly, and therefore 
sny: It is notoriously false (1.) To charge the "non-slaveholding States'' as 
a 7>od7j with ariy of these things; (2.) To charge any one of them upon the Fede- 
ral Government; (3.) To charge that the "party" then to come into power 
"on the 4th of March," had ever declared its intention or assumed the right to 
■wage war "against slavery until it should cease throughout the United States;" 
but this "party" had officially declared jjiis^ the contrary^ and this the South Caro- 
lina Convention perfectly knew. That official declaration is given in a note to 
Chapter I, Mr. Lincoln's letter accepting the nomination of this "party" for 
the Presidency, dated " May 23, 1860," contains an explicit indorsement of that 
declaration, as follows: "The declaration of principles and sentiments, which 
accompanies your letter, meets my approval ; and it shall be my care not to violate, 
or disregard it in any part." This letter of the Presidential candidate of this 
"party," the members of the South Carolina Convention had seen. They had, 
therefore, within their own positive knowledge, the complete disproof of iheir 
official charge ; and thus their falsehood stands before all men. 



48 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 

show precisely the same cause for the revolt as that assigned 
by the Convention of South Carolina, — the assumed hos- 
tility of the General Government to slavery, and the cor- 
responding sentiments of the people of the IN'orth, — and 
there is no other reason given in any ordinance of secession, 
A more recent and conclusive official testimony is found 
in the action of the Rebel Congress, at Richmond, in an 
" Address to the People of the Confederate States," issued 
in February, 1864, in which they speak of the cause of 
their secession, as follows : 

Compelled by a long series of oppressive and tyrannical acts, culmi- 
nating at last in the selection of a President and Vice-President by a 
party confessedly sectional, and hostile to the South and her institutions, 
these States withdrew from the former Union and formed a new Con- 
federate alliance, as an independent Government, based on the proper 
relations of labor and capital. * * * The Republican party was 
formed to destroy slavery and the equahty of the States, and Lincoln 
was selected as the instrument to accomplish this object. 

INDIVIDUAL WITNESSES THAT SLAVERY IS THE CAUSE. 

Besides this official testimony, many witnesses to the 
same effisct might be cited from among leading statesmen 
and divines. We give a sample of this testimony. 

Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Southern 
Confederacy, is a representative man among Southern 
statesmen, and one of the ablest of them all. In his speech 
at Savannah, Georgia, March 21, 1861, showing the supe- 
riority of their Constitution, he said : 

The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating ques- 
tions relating to our pecuhar institutions, — African slavery as it exists 
among us, — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. 
This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. 
Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the " rock upon which 
the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with 
him is now a realized fact. But whether he comprehended the great 
truth upon whicli tliat rock stood and stands, may be doubted. Tho 



WITNESSES THAT SLAVERY IS THE CAUSE. 49 

prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen 
at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the en- 
slavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature ; that it 
was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil 
they knew not how to deal with ; but the general opinion of the men of 
that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the 
institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though 
not incorporated in the Constitution, was the prevaihng idea at the time. 
The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the 
institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly 
used against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the 
common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were funda- 
mentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of 
races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of 
a Government built upon it — when the "storm came and the wind blew 
it fell." Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite 
ideas ; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth 
that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, subordina- 
tion to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This, our 
new Government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon 
this great physical, philosophical truth. 

The late Rev. Dr. Thornwell, of Columbia, S. C, was one 
of the representative men of the Southern Church. In a 
Fast-Day Sermon preached in Columbia, S. C, Nov. 21, 
1860, upon "National Sins," occasioned by the then in- 
cipient troubles of the country, he says : 

Let us inquire, in the next place, whether we have rendered unto our 
servants that which is just and equal. Is our legislation in all respects 
in harmony with the idea of slavery ? Are our laws such that we can 
heartily approve them in the presence of God ? Have we sufficiently 
protected the person of the slave ? Are our provisions adequate for 
giving him a fair and impartial trial when prosecuted for offences ? Do 
we guard as we should his family relations ? And, above aU, have we 
furnished him with proper means of religious instruction ? These and 
such questions we should endeavor to answer with the utmost solemnity 
and truth. "We have come before the Lord as penitents. Tlte j^cople 
whom we hold in bondage are the occasion of all our troubles. We liave Ijeen 
provoked by bitter and furious assailants to deal harshly with them, 



50 CAUSE or THE EEBELLION. 

and it becomes us this day to review our history, and the history of our 
legislation, in the light of God's truth, and to abandon, with ingenuous 
sincerity, whatever our consciences cannot sanction. 

Immediately after the secession of South Carolina, De- 
cember 20, 1860, Dr. Thornwell published an elaborate 
paper in its defence, in the Southern Presbyterian Review, 
In reference to the justifying cause of secession, we take 
from the article the following sentences : 

The real cause of the intense excitement of the South is not vain 
dreams of national glory in a separate confederacy ; * * * it is the pro- 
found conviction that the Constitution, in its relations to slavery, has been 
virtually repealed ; that the Government has assumed a new and dan- 
gerous attitude upon this subject ; that we have, in short, new terms of 
union submitted to our acceptance or rejection. Here lies the evil. 
The election of Lincoln, when properly interpreted, is nothing more nor 
less than a proposition to the South to consent to a government funda- 
mentally different upon the question of slavery from that which our fathers 
established. * * * The Constitution covers the whole territory of the 
Union, and throughout that territory has taken slavery under the protec- 
tion of law. * * * Let the Government permit the South to carry her 
persons held to service, without their consent, into the Territories, and 
let the right to their labor be protected, and there would be no quar- 
rel about slavery. * * * We are sure that we do not misrepresent the 
general tone of Northern sentiment. It is one of hostility to slavery, — 
it is one which, while it might not be willing to break faith, under the 
present Administration, with respect to the express injunctions of the 
Constitution, is utterly and absolutely opposed to any further extension 
OP THE SYSTEM. * * * The EXTENSION OP SLAVERY, in obedience to 
Northern prejudice, is to be forever arrested. Congress is to treat it as 
an evil, an element of political weakness, and to restrain its influence 
within the limits which now circumscribe it. 

Another representative man among the Southern clergy 
is the Rev. Dr. Palmer, also a South Carolinian by birth. 
On the breaking out of the rebellion he was pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church in New Orleans, a post which 
he maintained until a httle before the recovery of that city 



TESTIMONY OF EELIGIOTJS BODIES. 51 

by the Union forces. On Thanksgiving Day, November 
29, 1860, he preached a sermon, entitled, "The South : ITer 
Peril and Her Duty," in which he presents the grounds 
which justify secession. His fundamental jDroposition is, 
that it is the great " providential trust" of the South, " to 
conserve and to perpetuate the institutio7i of slavery as 7iow 
existing/^ and that it is 

Our present trust to preserve and transmit our existing system of 
domestic servitude, witli the right, unchanged by man, to go and root 
itself wherever Providence and nature may carry it. * * * No man has 
thoughtfully watched the progress of this controversy without being 
convinced that the crisis must at length come. * * * The embarrass- 
ment has been, while dodging amidst constitutional forms, to make au 
issue that should be clear, simple, and tangible. Such ari issue is at length 
presented in the result of the recent Presidential election. * * * It is no- 
where denied that the first article in the creed of the new dominant 
party is the restriction of slavery within its present limits. * * * 
The decree has gone forth that the institution of Southern slavery shall 
be constrained within assigned limits. Though nature and Providence 
should send forth its branches like the banyan tree, to take root in con- 
genial soil, here is a power superior to both, that says it shall wither 
and die within its own charmed circle. * * * It is this which makes 
the crisis. Whether we will or not, this is the historic moment when 
the fate of this institution hangs suspended in the balance. 

TESTIMONY OP RELIGIOUS BODIES TO THE SAME EFFECT. 

All the religious public bodies of the South, which speak 
on the subject at all, present slavery as the cause of the 
disruption. Among other numerous instances, the " Ad- 
dress of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
in the Confederate States of America, to all the Churches 
throughout the Earth," adopted "unanimously," at 
Augusta, Georgia, December, 1861, states the matter as 
follows : 

In addition to this, there is one difference which so radically and 
fundamentally distinguishes the North and the South, that it is becoming 



52 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 

every day more and more apparent, that the rehgious as well as the 
secular interests of both, will be more effectually promoted by a com- 
plete and lasting separation. The antagonism of Northern and Southern 
sentiment on the subject of Slavery lies at the root of all the difficultics 
which have resulted in the dismemherment of the Federal Union, and in- 
volved us in the horrors of an unnatural war. 

The Southern Baptist Convention, a body representing, 
as they say, "• a constituency of six or seven hundred thou- 
sand Christians," Hitting in Savannah, Georgia, May 13, 
1861, " unanimously" adopted a paj^er in which they thus 
refer to slavery as the cause of disunion : 

The Union constituted by our forefathers was one of coequal sovereign 
States. The fanatical spirit of the North has long been seeking to de- 
prive us of rights and franchises guaranteed by the Constitution ; and 
after years of persistent aggression, they have at last accomphshed their 
purpose. 

And simiLar testimony is borne by all the leading deno- 
minations of Christians at the South, which might be given 
did time and space permit ; the purport of all being, — that 
slavery, its claims and apprehensions, as urged by the 
Southern leaders, caused the rebellion."* 

* Besides the proof given from official sources, both secular and religious, and 
from distinguished civilians and divines, that slavery, in the sense explained, caused 
the rebellion, we add the statements of a few well-known public men of the South 
to the same effect, out of a thousand of a similar kind. Governor Andrew Johnson, 
of Tennessee, in a speech made at Nashville, in March, 1S6'2, is i*eported as saying of 
the rebel leaders : " Look at the hypocrite Yancey, telling Great Britain noio, that 
slavery was not the cause of the war. Tluey made the slavery question the sole 
pretext for tJieir rebellious acts.'''' In an address at Nashville, June 10, 1SG4, Governor 
Johnson says : " I told you long ago what the result would be, if you endeavored to 
go out of the Union to save slavery, and that the result would be bloodshed, rapine, 
devastated fields, plundered villages and cities; and therefore I urged you to remain 
in the Union. In trying to save slavery, you killed it, and lost your own freedom." 
Governor Hamilton, of Texas, in his Address to the people of that State, before referred 
to, says of slavery : " Gathering temerity from its successful war upon the rights 
and lives of the citizens, it lifted its unholy hand to destroy the Government to 
whose protection it owed its power. In its efforts to accomplish this, you have only 
been cousidered as so much material to be used." Hon. E. \V. Gautt, of Arkansas, 
who had been a General in the rebel army, in his speeches in New York, Little Eock, 



TESTIMONY OF BELIGIOUS BODIES. 531 

It is thus as clear as any proposition can well be made, 
from testimony^ — and the testimony of those who oikjJU to 
know, — that the great underlying cause of all which 
prompted the Southern rebellion, was the endeavor to give 
to the institution of negro slavery greater security, expan- 
sion, and lasting perpetuity ; and the incitement to this 
step for these ends was the hue and cry falsely raised 
through the South, that the incoming Administration of 
the General Government was pledged to the people who 
had put it in power, to interfere with the constitutional 
rights of the institution, or wholly to destroy it. 

Ark., and other places, says : " What is the cause of this war ? We Tcnmo that there 
is hut one disturbing element in the country. In the South, where the struggle 
commenced, there were but two ideas, and they revolved around the negro. One 
was. we should stay in the Union to protect the negro ; the other was, to go out, still 
to protect the negro. Had there been no negro slavery, there would have been no 
war. I say so, because I never saw any bitter contest in the country that negro 
slavery was not the foundation-stone to. Let us, fellow-citizens, endeavor to be 
calm. Let us look these new ideas and our novel position squarely in the face. We 
fought for negro slavery. We have lost. We may have to do without it." Governor 
Bramlette, in his message to the Legislature of Kentucky, says : " Ambitious men 
of the South, who first sought to create a sectional division upon the tariff, in order 
to build up a Government based upon the aristocracy of the slave-owner, having 
been foiled by the incorruptible patriotism and indomitable will of Andrew Jackson, 
next gave and accepted a sectional quarrel about the slave:' " The blinded ambition 
and obduracy of xhQ ?>o\xV[i&Tn &(iG(t?,?,iomsis, persistently thrust foricard the slave 
as the object of strife, although the Administration and the ruling powers for more 
than one year waived it aside, and refused to accept the issue." Hon. J. B. Hender- 
son of Missouri, in a speech in the United States Senate, on the 7th of April last, 
»' in favor of amending the Constitution so as to abolish slavery," thus speaks of the 
cause of the rebellion: " Shall It be answered that the South made the war before 
the institution was attacked, and that their 07ily wrong consists in this? The South 
declares that the rehelUonwas inaxigurated to protect slavery against Korthem 
aggression. Then the Northern Democracy must admit, at the least, that such is 
the character and influence of the institution that it drove the Southern people 
into unnecessary war before it wo* jeoparded by the action of the Government:^ 
"The Union is severed in the name of slavery. The civilized world regards .slavery 
as the remote or proximate cause of the war." "In the interest of slavery, they 
claimed the right to sever the Union. They have done so, to the extent of their 
power," "If the South be wrong, the wrong springs, as they say, from slavery. 
They themselves give no other cause for their withdrawal."' To this testimony 
might be added that of the entire press of the South, both secular and religious, that 
slavery is the grand underlying cause of the rebellion. 



54 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 



INCIDEISTTAL CONFIRMATOEY EVIDENCE. 

A great many other public facts kDown to the whole 
country confirm this testimony. Secession has been at- 
tempted by the public authorities, more or less acting 
together, in every Border slave State. In Kentucky, in 
the year 1861, a patriotic and determined Legislature 
prevented the disloyal designs of Governor Magoffin and 
other officials. In Maryland, Governor Hicks, sustained 
by certain Union Senators, refused for a long period to call 
a meeting of the Legislature, when it was well known that 
their design, if assembled, was to pass an act of secession ; 
and when at length the body did meet, they were pre- 
vented from consummating such a purpose only by the 
prompt action of the General Government. Governor 
Burton and other officials did all in their power, consist- 
ent with their personal safety, to carry out Delaware. 
Western Virginia was only saved to the Union by a divi- 
sion of the State. Governor Jackson, of Missouri, and the 
disloyal element in the Legislature, claimed to have carried 
that State into secession legally; at least by a process 
which commended itself to their political consideration. 
And thus, while every one of the Slave States has either 
formally enacted or attempted to enact secession, not one 
of the Free States has made such attempt. 

Nor is this all. Some of the Border States which made 
the attempt to secede, — as in the case of Kentucky and 
Missouri, — pretended to organize regular State Govern- 
ments, in connection with the rebel Southern Confederacy, 
and have since continued such organizations, "dwellmg in 
tents" and itinerating like menageries, but still claiming 
authority over the territory of their respective States. 
For the past two years or more, every Slave State except 
Maryland and Delaware has been represented in the rebel 



SLAVE STATES CLAIMED BY THE REBEL PRESIDENT. 55 

Congress. And finally, in full accordance with these sig- 
nificant facts, the State papers and military orders issued 
from Richmond, together with the whole Southern press, 
have always regarded every slave State as making a part 
of the Southern Confederacy. 

ALL SLAVE STATES OFFICIALLY CLAIMED BY THE REBEL 

PRESIDENT. 

Mr. Davis, the rebel President, gives, among other 
ofiicial proofs, incidental evidence of the position here 
taken, in his specification of Kentucky, when addressing 
Vice-President Stephens, in July, 1863, relating to his pro- 
jected visit to Washington on the " Confederate steamer 
Torpedo." Mr. Davis says ; 

The putting to death of unarmed prisoners has been a just ground of 
complaint in more than one instance ; and the recent executions of our 
officers in Kentucky^ for the sole cause that they were engaged in recruit- 
ing service in a State which is claimed as still one of the United States, 
but is also claimed 'by us as one of the Confederate States, must be repressed 
by retaliation if not unconditionally abandoned, because it would justify 
the like execution in every oilier State of the Confederacy. 

This refers to the spies executed by order of General 
Burnside in Kentucky ; although that State, in every popu- 
lar election, in some half dozen instances since the rebellion 
began, has given overwhelming majorities for the Union 
as against secession. 

Now, do these uniform, consistent, public, ofiicial acts 
(though of course without just authority), admit of any 
other explanation than that secession was undertaken, and 
that the rebellion has been prosecuted through every step 
in its progress, in entire subserviency to slavery ? Their 
pretended rule was only claimed to extend over the slave 
States, but yet over all of them. All their acts were marked 
by a geographical line, and that line hounding freedom 



56 CAUSE OF THE EEBELLION. 

and slavery. Their independence, from first to last, they 
have insisted, must be acknowledged by granting to them 
every slave State^ and their President, members of Con- 
gress, and public journals, have constantly declared, that 
they "will 7icver co?isent to pea-ce on any other terms.* 

It would seem that no proposition was ever more fully 
sustained by testimony of every species, both positive and 
negative, than that this rebellion has its life-spring in slor 
very. To preserve, perpetuate, and extend it, has animated 
its civic councils, furnished the theme for the eloquence of 
its pulpits, given prowess to its military leaders, sustained 
the heroic endurance of its soldiery, and nerved to the sac- 
rifices and stimulated the prayers of its people. We know 
not what more could be possibly added to make out a 
plainer case. 

In regard to the first six reasons presented by Judge 
Robertson to show that protection to slavery could not 
have stimulated " the leading conspirators," and in which 
he says " they knew" this and " they knew" that, we need 
only reply that sa7ie men might have seen and known all 
he states, of the then past, present, and future. But the 
difficulty with those " leading conspirators" was that they 
were not sane. They were demented. The profits, the 
glory, and the divinity of slavery had intoxicated them to 
frenzy. They could see nothing as it was. Our belief is 
that God had smitten them with judicial blindness ; and 
that, through their infatuation. He intended to accomplish 
for this nation great purposes of His own — of which we 
shall speak hereafter. But be this as it may, no truth in 
the world is better sustained than this, that slavery, as 

* Among the " terms" of peace, on which aJone the Richmond Enquirer says the 
rebels are willing to negotiate, this is stated : " 2. Withdrawal of the Yankee forces 
from every foot of Confederate ground, including Kentucky and Missouri." " The 
North must yield all ; we nothing." These " terms," in which they claim all the 
Slave States, are given in full, in a note to Chapter Iv. 



UNLIMITED EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. 57 

explained, is the cause of the rebellion against the Gov- 
ernment of the United States. 

UNLianTED EXTENSION OF SLAVERY. 

But it was not only to preserve slavery where it was 
established that the rebellion was undertaken. Nor was 
it, in addition, merely to carry it into the unoccupied do- 
main of the United States. Their scheme was much more 
grand than this. They aimed to build up a great Slave 
Empire around the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico and the States 
of Central America, now free, were to be peopled with 
negro slaves ; and the isles of the sea, now consecrated to 
freedom, were to be re-enslaved ; and with Cuba, these 
fertile lands of the tropics, united to the Southern States, 
were to constitute the territory of a nation whose " corner- 
stone" was to be human bondage. 

The proof that this was the magnificent plan contem- 
plated, is overwhelming. General Gantt refers to this in 
his speeches, from which we have quoted. It was for this 
he himself fought in the rebel army. He says : " I was a 
very good type of a pro-slavery man. I said, if the Con- 
stitution of our fathers would not protect slavery, no guar- 
antees would do it. I wanted to give that power an expan- 
sion^ westward to the ocean, and in another direction to 
take in Cuba and a part of Mexico, and all we could get 
heyo7idy 

Any one who doubts that it was the scheme of the lead- 
ers of the rebellion to extend slavery south and west over 
countries now free, " to go and root itself," in the language 
of Dr. Palmer, " wherever Providence and nature might 
carry it," and " with the freest scope for its natural devel- 
opment and extension," has not had his eyes open to cur- 
rent and notorious events. 

But this is by no means all. To make this " extension" 



68 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 

of slavery over so vast a region either practicable or profit- 
able, another thing was absolutely essential. Where were 
the slaves to come from to occupy these nnmense domains 
of the tropics ? or even profitably to develop our own un- 
occupied Territories, could slaves have been brought into 
them, or could the South have obtained the portion claimed 
by her on "an equitable division" of the Union? The 
answer to this is easy ; but it is not found where certain 
" conservatives," so called, at the North find it. 

It is one of the curious things which the discussions of 
the times have developed, that certain Northern men charge 
those who would hinder the " extension" of slavery into 
our own free territory, with throwing obstacles in the way 
of emancipation ; declaring that the way to joerpe;^?m?^e 
slavery is to confine it where it is, whereas, to allow it to 
expand, according to the wishes of its friends, is the 
certain way to promote emancipation and eventually to 
destroy it. 

THE EESTEICTIVE POLICY. 

Among those who have taken this view is Rev. Dr. 
Samuel J. Baird, of New Jersey. In his letter before 
referred to, entitled "Southern Rights and Northern 
Duties in the present Crisis," he says upon the point in 
hand : " The distraction now realized by our country, has 
attained its portentous character in consequence of two 
assumptions which are both demonstrably false." Our 
present concern is with only one of these " assumptions," 
which he states thus : "It is assumed that the eflfect of the 
erection of new Slave States, is to increase the amount of 
slavery in the country." He then proceeds " to state the 
grounds upon which" he has "long held the opinion, that 
the restrictive, or free soil policy, so far from tending to 
the advantage of the negro, and the extirpation of slavery, 



THE RESTRICTIVE POLICY. 59 

has directly the opposite effect,— that its influence is to 
retard his elevation, and render early emancipation impos- 
sible." 

Dr. Baird here takes precisely the opposite view of the 
"restrictive" policy from that taken by both Drs. Palmer 
and Thornwell. The former, in his Thanksgiving Discourse, 
before quoted, says : " The decree has gone forth that the 
institution of Southern slavery shall be constrained within 
asj^igned limits. Though nature and Providence should 
send forth its branches like the banyan-tree, to take root 
in congenial soil, here is a power superior to both, that 
says it shall loither and die loithin its own charmed circle.^'* 
Dr. Thorn well, in his article before referred to, says : " The 
extension of slavery, in obedience to ISTorthern prejudice, 
is to be forever arrested. Congress is to treat it as an 
evil, an element of political weakness, and to restrain its 
influence within the limits which now circumscribe it." 
" You may destroy the oak as effectually by girdling it as 
by catting it down. The North are well assured that if 
they can circumscribe the area of slavery, if they can sur- 
round it wnth a circle of non-slaveholding States, and pre- 
vent it from exj^anding, nothing more is required to secure 
its ultimate aholition. ' Like the scorpion girt by fire,' it 
will 2)110106 its fangs into its own body and perish ^ 

There seems to be, then, a slight difference of opinion 
between the New Jersey Doctor and the High Priests of 
the Slavery Propaganda, as to the effect of the "restrictive" 
policy. He thinks, and has " long held the opinion," that 
the restriction of slavery "would render early emancipation 
impossible;" they, that "nothing more is required to se- 
cure its ultimate abolition." We judge that the Southern 
Doctors had the more ample knowledge and sounder view 
of the case. Dr. Baird reasons theoretically, while the 
other gentlemen reason practically. 



60 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 



THE EXPANSIVE POLICY. 



But our main object in referring to Dr. Baird is to notice 
the other side of the problem ; to compare his opinion of 
the " expansive" policy with the designs of Southern men. 
We do not aim, for want of space, to give his argument, 
but merely his positions. He says : 

It is true, as an ordinary rule, that dispersion tends to stimulate the 
increase of population ; * * * but it is evident that this principle does not 
apply, in any appreciable degree, to the slave population. The respon- 
sibility of providing for the support of the family rests not on the parents 
but on the master. * * * In one word, the immediate effect of the wider 
dispersion of a given number of slaves is, to elevate and fit them for 
freedom, and to secure for them that boon, in the surest and safest man- 
ner, * * * As a question of State policy, it may be wise for the North- 
ern States to prohibit the introduction of slaves from the South. But as 
a question of national policy, a question of humanity to the negro and 
emancipation to the slave — as a question of national strength, political 
and military, no proposition is more demonstrable than that the utmost 
possible dispersion of the slaves is the policy dictated by sound reason, 
and approved by enlightened humanity. It may be objected that the 
" curse of slavery" ought not to be inflicted on the Territories. "Waiving 
all cavil as to the phrase, it would seem that true patriotism must have 
at least as great concern for the welfare of the people of the South as for 
the trackless wilds of the West. 

The point here made is, that the wider the " dispersion" 
of the slaves, permitting the " extension" of the system 
into all the Territories as the South demanded, would tend 
to " emancipation," and be the proper " policy" for'all who 
desired that end to advocate; just as the "restrictive" 
policy would tend to perpetuate the system. Does Dr. 
Baird then suppose that this was the motive the South had 
in view when demanding admission into the Territories ? — 
that this was, with them, a measure of " emancipation ?" — 
and that being refused, they sought to get out of the Union ? 



EEOPENING OF THE SLAVE-TRADE. 61 

Or, if this was not their direct motive^ does he suppose that 
thej were not quite as well able to determine the " effect" 
of opening the Territories to slavery, as himself? — that 
they could not see whether such a course would promote 
*' emancipation" or not ? Is it not at least highly prob- 
able, that, as he is proved by Southern testimony, — from 
those who " live, and move, and have their being," in the 
atmosphere of slavery, — to be in error about the " restric- 
tive," so also he may be about the "dispersive" policy? 
We would not call in question the correctness of his rea- 
soning, in its general application, upon the " increase of 
population," under the aspects of the respective policies of 
a scattered or crowded condition ; but it does not cover 
the present case. We shall see this when we understand 
the ultimate designs of the South concerning this question 
of " dispersion" through the Territories. 

REOPENING OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 

There is too much known for doubt, that it was the ulti- 
mate plan of the rebel leaders to fill up the Territories, 
could they have free access to them, with slaves from the 
Old States, and to supply their places with fresh imjjorta- 
tionsfrom Africa^ or introduce those newly imported into 
both, as occasion might require. 

They were to clamor for a repeal of the law prohibiting 
the African slave-trade as " piracy," and in case of failure 
were to evade it, or to pursue the traffic openly in spite of 
it, as was done in the case of the slaver Waiiderer and 
others, that brought cargoes into Southern ports and sold 
and dispersed them through the Southwest a i'ew years 
ago. Prosecutions against them would fail, as they did 
fail in some of these cases, because Southern Courts were 
corrupted by the prevailing opinion. 

Thus, the " effect" pointed out by Dr. Bau-d of opening 



62 CAUSE OF THE KEBELLION. 

the Territories to slavery, would not T)e to elevate the ne- 
gro and ultimately to emancijiate him through the policy 
of " dispersion ;" but an expansion and perpetuation of the 
system on new ground, by new recruits from Africa, wns 
the grand design of the rebel leaders. In case the war 
no-ainst this course should become too hot, or thev should 
not gain access to the Territories, the plan was to go out 
of the Union, build up a Slave Empire around the Gulf of 
Mexico, and people the fair regions of Central America with 
their newly-caught victims. 

EEOPENIISTG OF THE TRADE DENIED. 

When this project of reopening the African slave-trade is 
charged, it is by some denied, even despite of the fact that 
it icas actually in progress against all the power of Ameri- 
can courts of law, and American and English fleets on the 
African coast. The fact which is often appealed to as per- 
fectly conclusive, is, that the rebel Constitution, adopted 
at i\Iontgoraery, specially prohibited the opening of that 
traffic. But the power that made that instrument could 
change it, and undoubtedly would do so at the proper time. 
That prohibition was inserted manifestly for two reasons : 
to conciliate the Border States which had slaves to sell, 
and to conciliate PJuropean Powers whose favor they 
wished to gain. It certainly was not inserted because of 
any opposition to the traffic in itself considered, either on 
the ground of principle or policy. Such a supposition 
would belie the well-known sentiments of the leading 
spirits among its framers. 

Even the good and great Dr. Thorn well, while denying 
that the desire for reopening the trade was a cause of the 
disruption, does not condemn, but rather palliates, if he does 
not actually approve, the traffic in itself considered, and 
when properly conducted. He is rather facetious, and 



KEOPEXING OF THE TEADE DENIED. 03 

seems to think that those at the South who have advocated 
it, have done it simply for the purpose of " teasing their 
enemies" and "providing hard nuts for abolitionists to 
crack." We shall soon see whether this is true. In the 
mean time, hear Dr. Thornwell, in the same article before 
referred to : 

It has also been asserted, as a ground of dissatisfaction with the 
present Government, and of a desire to organize a separate Government 
of their own, that the cotton-growing States are intent upon reopening. 
as a means of fulfilling their magnificent visions of wealth, the African 
slave-trade. The agitation of this subject at the South has been griev- 
ously misunderstood. * * * They wished to show that they could 
give a Rowland for an Oliver. Had abolitionists never denounced the 
domestic trade as plunder and robbery, not a whisper would ever have 
been breathed about disturbing the peace of Africa. The men who were 
loudest in their denunciations of the Government, had, with very few 
exceptions, no more desire to have the trade reopened than the rest of 
their countrymen: but they delighted in teasing tlieir enemies. They 
took special satisfaction in providing hard nuts for abolitionists to 
crack. 

Dr. Thornwell thus resolves the whole thing into ^joke; 
regards the utterances of the leading spirits iu Southern 
Commercial Conventions, and the deliberate resolves of 
those bodies for many years, with the advocacy of leading 
Southern papers and periodicals, — coming from the Yan- 
ceys, the Rhetts, the De Bows, and their colaborers, the 
very men who at length wielded power to carry the whole 
eleven States into that very rebellion which he defends 
with his powerful pen, — as evincing nothing more serious 
than the employment of their pastime in a little innocent 
'' teasing." If he himself is serious, we pity his incredu- 
lity. The proof is too fall to admit of a doubt among 
common men. But why should he present this caveat at 
all ? — especially in the foce of abundant testimony ? He 
seems to have no objection to the reopening, on the ground 



64 CAUSE OF THE KEBELLION. 

of any wrong in the traffic ; nor, according to him, does 
any one else in the South. The only thing is to see that 
it is well conducted. Hear him : 

There were others, not at all in favor of the trade, who looked upon 
the law as unconstitutional which declared it to he piracy. But the 
great mass of the Southern people were content with the law as it stood. 
They were and are opposed to the trade, — not because the traffic in 
slaves is mmoraZ,— that, not a man of us believes,— but because the 
traffic with Africa is not a traffic in slaves. It is a system of kidnap- 
ping and man-stealing, which is as abhorrent to the South as it is to the 
North. 

If then it could be divested of some of its odious fea- 
tures, it would all be right ! But even if " the great mass 
of the Southern people" loere against the African slave- 
trade, we only need to bear in mind that so also they were 
against disunion until led astray by demagogues in Church 
and State ; and as " the men who were loudest in their 
denunciations of the Government," and finally led the peo- 
ple into rebelhon, were the very men who were for open- 
ing the slave-trade, so, we may reasonably suppose, they 
would eventually have been equally successful, under the 
new Government, in carrying " the great mass" with them 
in favor of the latter scheme. 

PROOF OF THE DESIGNED OPENING OF THE TRADE. 

Let us now see what evidence there is that it was a 
part of the plan of disunion to reopen the African slave- 
trade. 

De Bow's Review^ an able commercial periodical pub- 
lished at New Orleans before the rebellion, was an acknowl- 
edged organ of the rebel leaders, and an oracle on all sub- 
jects connected with their movements. For several years 
it had openly advocated the reopening of the trade, and 
some of its articles made this a siiie qua 7ion with the 



PROOF OF THE DESIGNED OPENING OF THE TRADE. 05 

South for remaining in the Union. Its editor, Mr. J. D. 
B. De Bow, Superintendent of the Census Bureau under 
President Pierce, and many of his correspondents, wrote 
in favor of the project. Almost every number had some- 
thing upon it. We can only give a specimen of this hter- 
ature. The first citation is found in the number for No- 
vember, 1857, in an article advocating a " Central South- 
ern University," to educate young men in the political 
views peculiar to the South ; and as a reason for showing 
its necessity, the writer thus speaks of American and Euro- 
pean views of slavery and the slave-trade : 

These fifteen hireling States, together with all the rest of North 
America, except the slaveholding States mentioned, and more than one- 
half of South America, reinforced and sustained by England, France, 
and most of the other nations of Europe, have openly declared them- 
selves against American slavery, and may be said to be engaged in a 
crusade against our domestic institutions. The African slave-trade has 
been denounced as piracy, not only by several European powers, but 
by the United States. From the beginning of the present century up to 
this time, the mfluence of the Government has been against the South ;* 
and for fifteen years this Government has kept a fleet on the African 
coast for the express purpose, acting in conjunction with England and 
France, of suppressing the traffic in slaves, and for preventing their 
importation into America. And at least three-fourths of the expense 
of maintaining this fleet have been paid by the South. * * * The 
difficulty between the South and the North can never arrive at a peaceable 
settlement The supreme and ultimate arbiter in the dispute now pend- 
ing between them micst be the sword. To that complexion it must come 
at last 

The foregoing is mild compared with what follows from 
the number for December of the same year. The article 
is upon the " Wealth of the North and the South : the 

♦ And yet, from the facts, and the testimony of the rebel Vice-President, it 
appears that the Government was controlled by " the South" and its Northern 
"allies," sixty-four out of seventy-two years from its origin. This is shown in 
Chapter I. 



66 CAUSE OF THE REBELLION. 

Slave-Trade and the IJDion." Speaking of the North, the 
writer says : 

Her industrious and enterprising population, her commercial, manu- 
facturing, and mechanical skill, her fine harbors, her fisheries, and her 
Union with and vicinity to the South, are the true sources of her pros- 
perity. A revival of the African slave-trade at the South, would furnish 
her with cheaper raw materials, cheaper provisions, and extend and 
improve the market for her commerce, merchandise, and manufactures. 
This is prohaUy the only measure that can save the Union. It will meet 
with some opposition from a few inconsiderate Southern slaveholders, 
because it will lessen the price of slaves and of slave products. But it 
will greatly increase the price of Southern lands, half of which are now 
lying ivaste and useless for ivant of labor,'^ whilst Christendom is almost 
starving from the deficiency of Southern products. Such a step would 
give political security to the South, because it would identify still more 
closely the interest of all sections in uj)hokling and increasing Slavery. 
Texas would speedily be settled, and Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, 
Missouri, and Maryland, with slaves at two hundred dollars around, 
would bring all their now vacant lands into successful cultivation. It 
is most provable that New York, Pennsylvania, and the whole Northwest, 
WOULD ALSO BECOME SLAVEHOLBING ivlth slaves at tivo hundred dollars. 
Events are tending this way. * * * It is our true interest to 
secure and preserve the monoiwly of cotton production, and we can 
efifect this only by the renewal of the slave-trade. It is- highly credita- 
ble to the much abused "extremists of the South," that they, ivith a few 
exceptions, and their press, are the most prominent advocates of the revi- 
val of the slave-trade, which in a pecuniary way most of them think 
injurious to themselves. But they are patriots, and ready to ma.ke great 
sacrifices to preserve p)eace and Union. * * * Is it possible to con- 
ceive that the North will not, when it surveys the whole ground in 
controversy, advocate the renewal of the old slave-trade as a 
measure of humanity, as well to the idle, savage, pagan negroes, as to 
the starving, laboring whites of Europe and the North ? * * * All 
sections have confidence in the present Administration, but let it go out 

* What, then, we would ask Dr. Baird and others who agree with him, could 
the South do with the Territories, except to introduce slaves from Africa, if ''half 
of the "Southern lands" in 1S57 were "lying waste and useless for want of labor?'' 
Nothing, clearly, unless on his principle they wished to promote " emancipation" 
by "dispersion." 



PROOF OF THE DESIGNED OPENING OF THE TRADE. 67 

of power — and '• then the deluge." Mr. Buchanan will be the "last of 
the Presidsnts," unless abolition is arrested in its course, and some mea- 
sure, some line of policy adopted, which shall plainly and obviously 
make the extension of Slavery the interest of the North. * * * ^n 
exasperated South will blow the Union to shivers, if hordes of Xorthern 
immigrants continue to seize upon and monopolize the whole of that 
territory, whicli she, the South, chiefly acquired, despite of much North, 
ern opposition. The revival of the African slave-trade^ the reduction in 
the price of negroes, and the increase of their numbers, will enable us 
successfully to contend in the settlement of Xew Territories with 
the vast emigration from the North. Nothing else can. It is the 
ONLY MEASURE that CAN preserve THE Union. * * * Let her (the 
North; examine the subject calmly, historically, religiously, morally, 
statistically, and philosophically, and she wUl find the proposed proce- 
dure quite as humane as profitable. If this does not satisfy her, calcu- 
late the costs and consequences of disunion, for it has come to this — 

EITHER A RENEWAL OF THE SLAVE-TRADE, OR DISUNION. There Can be 

no drawn battle between abolition, and slavery and the slave-trade. 
Truth will prevail. One or the other must conquer. God defend the 
right. 

We give but one more specimen, taken from tlie same 
periodical, Dc JBow^s Mevieiv for May, 1859 ; 

How often have we been told from our legislative halls, that Con- 
gress has no power or jurisdiction over slavery, as it exists in the 
United States — that each one of the States is sovereign, and competent 
to manage its own internal afiairs. How comes it then, we ask, that 
Congress has, for so many years, legislated, and entered on her rolls, 
laivs expressly prohibiting the slave-trade, and entering into compact with 
foreign nations loith force of arms to suppress it ? * * * "Where is the 
propriety or fitness or evenness in action, to send a United States Mar- 
shal to aid in the recapture of a runaway slave in any of the mis- 
called free States, and at the same time having a fleet on the African 
coast to intercept and suppress it altogether? If any one can solve 
this riddle, why then we confess he is more shrewd than we are, and 
most cheerfully resign to him the palm of victory in discrimination. 
* * * Was not the seizure and capture and confiscation of the brig 
Ectio, a direct preventive of the people of a certain latitude from the 
use of that kind of laborers only, and property suitable to their climate, 
4* 



68 CAUSE OF THE EEBELLION. 

soil, and production ? * * * Ever since the time thai Congress first 
took action to sujjpress the slave-trade, at that crisis and moment 

WERE SOWN THE SEEDS OF DISUNION 

THE CAUSE FULLY DEVELOPED. 

We now see the ultimate purposes sought to be accom- 
plished by the rebel leaders. We are now ready to draw 
the grand conclusion as to the cause of the rebellion. We 
are able, somewhat, to approach to an adequate concep- 
tion of the enormity of that wickedness, to perpetrate 
which, through treason, fraud, war, and carnage, ministers 
of the Gospel and Christian Churches, with others, — as 
we shall see further on in these pages, — gave their personal 
and official influence at an early stage in this drama of 
blood, and in some instances took the lead in counsel and 
action, and have been its most ardent supporters to the 
present hour. We see the sjyecial end to be reached by 
an overthrow of the Government of the United States, 
and the building up of another nation in its stead, upon 
such a " corner-stone" as no other nation, according to 
Mr. Stephens, ever rested upon "in the history of the 
world." 

The project was grand. The means were appropriate. 
The conception was worthy of the greatest intellects and 
the largest hearts. We seriously doubt whether any other 
l^eople but " our Southren brethren" could have compassed 
it. It was not merely to perpetuate a system of human 
bondage which was the scorn of the whole Christian world 
outside of the immediate region in which it was upheld; 
not merely to preserve for themselves and transmit to 
their children the status of slavery as it existed among 
them ; but it was to inaugurate and consummate a great 
system of Slavery Propagandism, and that not merely 
upon the virgin soil of the Territories ; these modern 



THE CAUSE FULLY DEVELOPED. 69 

Apostles were to carry their missionary enterprise into the 
Free States ; " New York, Pennsylvania, and the whole 
Northwest," were among the first benighted regions that 
were to be visited; and " with slaves at two hmidred dol- 
lars" a head, every farmer could become a gentleman of 
leisure, with an abundance of laborers to till his grounds. 
To realize these glowing visions of Avealth and the otimn 
cum dignitate^ the slave-marts of Africa were to be again 
thrown wide open, and " all sections" were to go *in for 
" the revival of the slave-trade." Dr. Thornwell and other 
leading clergymen would approve of the traffic, and de- 
fend it in the Religious Reviews, as De Bow had long 
done in his Commercial Review, if it could only be divested 
of some of its repugnant adjuncts; and for the sake of 
enlisting their vigorous pens this could easily be done, or 
at least easily promised. 

And why should not all hands at once join in this, and 
all become rich together ? — and why should we not, too, 
'' as a measure of liuinanity^' when appealed to " calmly, 
historically, religiously, morally, statistically, and philo- 
sophically ?" And, above all, we are appealed to patrioti- 
cally. If we do not join in this grand religious and politi- 
cal regeneration of our country and the rest of mankind, " an 
exasperated South will blow the Union to shivers" and 
set up for themselves ; " for it has come to this — either a 
renewal of the slave-trade, or disunion." But they do not 
wish to do so bad a thing — oh, no ! " They are patriots., 
and ready to make great sacrifices to preserve peace and 
Union !" 

As, then, the " renewal of the old slave-trade" is the 
" only measure that can preserve the Union," the responsi- 
bility of its preservation is upon the North. Why will 
she not step forward and sign the bond? Who can hesi- 
tate when sucli interests a,re in the trembling balance ? — 



70 CAUSE OF THE EEBELLION. 

wealth, ease, religion, humanity, patriotism, Union, and 
universal slavery ; all made sure forever, with " the price 
of negroes at two hundred dollars" a head ! 

Another idea looms up under all this which certain 
moralists should ponder, and correct their logic. They 
have said all along that it was the "Abolitionists" who 
had bred all the trouble, and finally brought disunion. 
But let them take a lesson here from their Southern teach- 
ers. It was not the Abolitionists at all ; not even the 
more moderate opponents of slavery; but it was op- 
position to the slave-trade which at the very first threat- 
ened to destroy the Union, just as a refusal to reopen it 
has led to its actual disruption. The Southern oracle 
says : " Ever since the time that Congress first took action 
to suppress the slave-trade, at that crisis and moment 
were sown the seeds of disunion." A truce then to this 
war upon the Abolitionists. The " seeds of disunion" 
were sown before they were out of their teens. 

But to look at the matter " calmly," as we are exhorted 
to do : the American People may here behold the sump- 
tuous repast to which they were sincerely and soberly 
invited by the leading spirits of the South, the men who 
controlled public opinion there, and were successful in 
precipitating the rebellion. Nothing short of consenting 
to these demands could have satisfied them. If the North 
had been ready for this humiliation, the Union and the 
Government could have been saved and peace maintained. 
But in no possible way could war have been avoided with- 
out this, except upon a complete abandonment of their 
ground by the South. That ground they would not aban- 
don, — and hence the rebellion. 



RESPONSIBILITY FOE THE REBELLION. 71 



CHAPTER III. 

RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION". 
As in resrarcl to the cause of the rebellion, so also as to 



'C5 



the responsibility for it, there has been a wide diversity 
of opinion. While the former is too plain to admit of 
doubt, there appears to be more plausible ground for dif- 
ference about the latter; and, yet, laying aside prejudice, 
the facts seem to place this also within the pale of com- 
plete moral certainty. 

It has been very freely charged, and is still, by many in 
the loyal States, that the abolitionists have brought all 
the troubles upon the country, have provoked the South to 
rebel, and are therefore responsible for the war and all its 
consequences. Another class divide the responsibility 
about equally between the abolitionists and secessionists. 
Still another class charge the whole responsibility upon 
the rebels, insisting that whatever grievances they may 
have had, real or imaginary, they were not justified in 
seeking to redress them by revolution. 

Few questions, either political or moral, connected with 
the contest, can be more important than this ; important as 
affecting the interests of the country at large ; important 
in the eyes of the nations of the world, and in the judg- 
ment which posterity will form ; as well as important, otii- 
cinlly and personally, to the rulers, and the leaders of parties, 
both North and South, and to every individual who has 
given aid on either side, in however small a degree ; and 
not only important for the life that now is, but in reference 



Y2 EESPONSIBILITY FOE THE REBELLION. 

to that account which all must render to God when He 
shall make inquisition concerning the responsibility for hav- 
ing plunged thirty millions of people, in a Christian land, 
into a war which has in its bearings and magnitude no 
parallel in history. No question, therefore, deserves to be 
'approached with more candor and examined more dispas- 
sionately. 

ABOLITIONISTS CHARGED WITH THE RESPONSIBILITY. 

On this point we refer again to the papers of Judge 
Robertson ; chiefly because he represents an extensive 
class. He condemns the secessionists unsparingly, but he 
holds the abolitionists largely responsible for the woes 
which have befallen the land. He says : " For that per- 
nicious ferment, abolitionists are primarily and pre-emi- 
nently accountable, and are, therefore, justly chargeable 
with a large share of the responsibility for all the conse- 
quences ; for, had there been no abolitionism, there would 
have been no secession yet, if ever, and had there been no 
secession there would have been no war.'' He plainly 
does not mean by " abolitionists" those who are simply 
emancipationists^ or opposed to slavery, as nearly the 
whole North and many in the Border slave States are ; 
for, he says, even of himself: "I am not, nor ever was, 
proslavery in feeling or in principle ; I would delight to 
see all men free." By " abolitionists" he means those of 
the Garrison and Phillips school ; for in the same article 
he describes them thus : " Abolitionists, it is true, have 
complained of the Constitution as ' a league with hell/ 
only because it tolerates and protects slavery in the slave- 
holding States ; and this pestilent band of fanatics and 
demagogues have, for thirty years, been plotting a disso- 
lution of the Union as the only or most speedy and sure 
means of abolishing slavery." 



FALLACIOUS EEASOXING TO SUSTAIN THE CHARGE. 73 

By this description the Judge means by " abolitionists" 
those whom tlie country commonly accept under this 
designation, headed by Garrison, Phillips, and their coad- 
jutors, some of whom have heretofore joined with their 
opposition to slavery, opposition to the Sabbath, the min- 
istry, the Church, and the Bible. He quotes one of their 
pet phrases which shows that he means them. We enter 
no defence of this class, as abolitionists. We have always 
been opposed to their schemes and to the spirit by 
which they seem to have been actuated. We make these 
quotations, however, and we remark upon them, for the 
purpose of endeavoring to determine where the real re- 
sponsibility we are seeking lies. We believe in giving 
" the devil his due," and even William Lloyd Garrison 
and his associates are entitled to at least that measure of 
consideration. As we totally disagree with the eminent 
jurist in locating this responsibility, we cannot refrain 
from a vindication of these men, so far as the charge is 
concerned, that they are "primarily and pre-eminently 
accountable" for the rebellion and the horrors of the war. 
We not only deny the allegation, and shall give ample 
evidence to sustain the denial, and show where the respon- 
sibility lies, but we are amazed at the reasoning by which 
the Judge would sustain the charge, though Ave have fre- 
quently met with the like before. 

FALLACIOUS REASONING TO SUSTAIN THE CHARGE. 

In the first place, we do not see why, in the chain of 
sequences which the Judge employs, he should either 
begin or end just where he does. His point is, that the 
abolitionists are responsible for the war; "for, had there 
been no abolitionism, there would have been no secession 
yet, if ever, and had there been no secession there would 
have been no war." 



74 EESPONSIBILITY FOE THE EEBELLIOX. 

Why may we not, with equal cogency, so flir as tlie logic 
of the case is concerned, begin with at least one prior 
step? — thus: "Had there been no slavery, there would 
have been no abolitionism," &g. The case admits of this, 
beyond question. The proposition is logically true, and 
true in fact. Abolitionism, whether right or wrong, is 
aimed only at slavery, and could not exist without it. 
They have lived side by side, and they will die together. 
Nor is there any logical necessity for beginning with this 
one prior step. With perfect truth, we may reason thus : 
" Had there been no sin there would have been no slavery." 
And the chain might be extended further. But the 
position of slavery in this longer chain is not only logically 
correct, but it is so in morals; and this, too, whether 
slavery is a sin ^er se or not. It is, at the very lesst, the 
fruit of sin, as all classes admit, and one of the palpable 
signs of a fallen race. The ablest deft'nders of slavery as 
a divine institution, declare it to have originated in a 
" curse" inflicted for sin, and to be one of its most striking 
badges; and all this, while arguing that in these latter 
days it has been transmuted into a " blessino-" to all con- 
cerned, political, social, and moral, by a sort of metaphy- 
sical alchemy in which its defenders are peculiarly skilled. 

THEY WOULD DISCUSS THE SUBJECT. 

But in the next place, passing by the logic of this pas- 
sage, there is a moral aspect which the case suggests be- 
yond that wl]ich we have incidentally stated. Remarkably 
few, taking the general judgment of Christendom, agree 
with the men of the extreme South in their modern views 
of slavery. With a unanimity that has few parallels, it is 
r(>garded as an evil, political and social; and by great 
numbers, as a sin. Whether they are right or wrong in 
their judgment is not now material ; they claim the right 



ABDUCTION GF SLAVES. 75 

to discuss the question. It is idle to tell men in our coun- 
try that they shall not discuss any question of mor ils, poli- 
tics, or religion. It cannot be prevented. There is neither 
authority nor power to prevent it ; and we trust it will 
never be attempted, unless the liberty of speech or of the 
press shall be abused to the injury of individuals or of 
society. 

Now it is notorious that the head and front of the offence 
committed by the class of whom Judge Robertson speaks, is 
that they would discuss the question of slavery ; or, if the 
term suits any better, that they would " agitate" the sub- 
ject. They had, as all the w^orld knows, a peculiar way of 
their own ; but if they transgressed no law, that pecu- 
liarity was a part of their right. They called hard names, 
and unnecessarily stirred up bitter feelings. In this they 
committed an offence against good taste and Christian pro- 
priety, and we have always disapproved of their course. 
But that they, in common with all men, had a perfect right 
to discuss the subject to their hearts' content, all must 
admit. If discussion disturbed slavery, as it is universally 
conceded it did, — and must necessarily do so, however con- 
ducted, — it was one of the misfortunes of the institution 
which from its nature could not be avoided, and for which 
it was alone responsible. And it will be seen in the sequel, 
that here is where the great " grievance" lies, when the 
case is sifted to the bottom. Mankind would discuss the 
merits of slavery. Hence the germ of Southern dissatis- 
faction. 

ABDUCTION OF SLAVES. 

But the abolitionists are charged with doing far worse 
than discussing the subject. It is said, they stole Southern 
property; when fugitive slaves were ptn'sued, they made 
open resistance to the laws ; and finally, their schemes cul- 



V6 RESPONSIBILITY FOE THE EEBELLION. 

minated in the John Brown raid. We shall not defend 
any of these things. We have always condennied them. 
We have advocated in the pulpit, in a Northern State, 
obedience to the laws, active or passive, the Fugitive Slave 
Law included, specifying it by name, and have condemned 
mob violence, and our views have heretofore been pub- 
lished. We should take the same course with regard to 
any properly enacted law, without regard to its character. 
We know of no other course which a Christian can justly 
take. 

But suppose it be admitted that the abolitionists did all 
that is here charged, what does it amount to as justifying 
or even extenuating this gigantic rebellion ? South Caro- 
lina formally presents in her " Declaration of Causes which 
induced the Secession" of the State, and as "justifying" it, 
this spoliation of her slave property ; and yet, South Caro- 
lina, as the men of her Convention must have known from 
the statistics extant, suffered very little in this regard, 
and even less than any other State. All the seceded 
States suffered comparatively little, and those most noisy 
about secession least of all, from their geographical posi- 
tion; while the Border States, from which the largest 
number escaped, were content to remain in the Union, and 
condemned in not very measured terms the course of the 
States farther South. This complaint of the rebel States, 
of the loss of their property, wlien presented to justify 
either secession or rebellion, is too well known to be the 
most shallow and hypocritical of all false pretences. 

THE WHOLE NORTH CHARGED WITH IT. 

The attempt has been made to implicate the mass of the 
Northern people in these breaches of the law and good 
faith towards the South. Certain newspapers. North and 
South, have rung with such charges, and certain Northern 



ABOLITIONISTS NOT EEPUBLICANS. 77 

and many Southern orators in Congress have made them. 
But their falsity is obvious. No evidence has ever been 
found to sustain them, even after the most diligent search. 
It was charged, for example, that the whole North aided 
and abetted John Brown ; or, at least, as was again said, 
the whole Republican party ; or, with still another abate- 
ment, certainly the leaders of that party, though in the face 
of their positive denials. Senator Mason, of Virginia, was 
so sure of his game that he called for a Committee of the 
United States Senate, " with full power to send for persons 
and papers," to investigate the subject. He was promptly 
accommodated, and was made chairman. After a long 
research without let or hindrance, and with all the power 
of a willing Administration to aid him, he made a report 
and asked for the Committee's discharge. He found 
nothing — and reported it. 

ABOLITIONISTS NOT REPUBLICANS. 

In regard to the abolitionists, who are held " primarily 
and pre-eminently accountable" for the horrors of this 
rebellion, it is well known that they have ever formed a 
remarkably small fraction of the community, and that their 
influence W'ith the mass of the people has been insignifi- 
cant. They have never, in any Presidential election, as a 
party, acted with the Rej)ublican party, but have opposed it 
with violence and bitterness, always having their own can- 
didate. Since the rebellion has been in progress, the leaders 
of that faction have sometimes been found supporting the 
Government and sometimes abusing it ; according to our 
observation, most commonly the latter. Wendell Phillips, 
the most renowned orator among them, has frequently, and 
of late, denounced the President by name, and the Adminis- 
tration, for the policy pursued in conducting the war, and 



78 RESPONSIBILITY FOB THE REBELLION. 

he has publicly identified himself with a party opposed 
to Mr. Lincoln's re-election. 

Bat granting all that may with truth be said of these 
men, their numbers and influence have always been so 
saiall in the country, that it is perfectly preposterous to 
hold them "■ primarily and pre-eminently accountable" for 
the war and its consequences. Or, granting that the ut- 
most that has been charged upon this class is true to the 
letter, — yea, and that vastly more than is charged specifi- 
cally, is true of them, — yet, it cannot before God, nor will 
it before candid men, be deemed sufficient to justify, or in 
the least possible degree to extenuate, an open and bloody 
revolution aiirainst the General Government. And althouuh 
it may be urged against the Garrison and Phillips 
school that they for many years strived to divide the 
Union, — and they freely admit the charge, at lea^t their 
leaders, — their weapons were the tongue and the pen. 
They never, as a party, put themselves in battle array to 
ovei throw the Government, seizing the ships, mints, cus- 
tom-houses, and forts of the Government, and using them 
in a bloody contest for its destruction. These memorable 
deeds were left for the Southern chivalry, — "our Southern 
brethren," — and for the sake of slavery. 

ABOLITIONISTS COMPLIMENTED THE PEOPLE DISPARAGED. 

But do serious people see the bearing of such a charge ? 
In holding the Abolitionists responsible, do they perceive 
what power over twenty millions of people in the Free 
States they ascribe to the merest fraction of the popula- 
tion? 

Here is a small body of persons, led by some half a 
dozen orators, male and female, who have, within a few 
years, by meetings, speeches, and publications, — all peace- 
ful and legitimate means under a free Government, — put 



ABOLITIONISTS COMPLIMENTED. 79 

forth their sentiments on a given subject, and have pro- 
duced one of the most astounding revolutions in human 
history in the sentiments of an enlightened, educated, and 
religious people ; leading this people, to such an expression 
of opinion at the ballot-box, as is deemed a solenm poUti- 
cal judgment on one of the mightiest questions of State 
which ever affected any people resulting in so disaffect- 
ing another portion of the same nation, in population 
relatively not more than one-third of the whole number, 
as to induce them to take up arms to " recover their 
rights," and to induce the majority also to take up arms 
to maintain that political judgment; and thus exhibiting 
to the world one of the greatest and most bloody wars 
ever known among men. All this is charged upon this 
" contemptible faction," as it is called ; but by no means 
contemptible, if the charge is true. 

While this "faction" was engaged in this work, they 
w^ere opposed, in both sections of the nation thus affected 
by them, by the much larger portion of the " fourth 
estate," the press, secular and religious, daily, weekly, 
and periodical ; they were covered with reproach, and the 
most opprobrious epithets of the English language were 
heaped upon them, by orators in Congress and among the 
people, by the press, and by all the usual appliances for 
affecting public opinion. During all the earlier period of ^ 
their career, they were frequently assailed with other 
weapons ; showered with rotten eggs, their meetings 
broken up by mobs, their public halls burned, ordinary 
placets for popular assemblages deuiL^d them, their printing- 
presses broken and their offices sacked and burned ; and 
if one of them chanced to be found South of a certain line 
of latitude, or a person who was no more than " suspected" 
of being one of them, a coat of tar and feathers was the 
least compliment paid him ; and if his visit was welcomed 



80 KESP0NS1BILIT2 FOK THE REBELLION. 

Avith whipping or hanging, it was deemed no more than 
was deserved for such sentiments and conduct as he was 
" reasonably suspected" of entertaining. 

Beyond this, the mass of the religious portion of the 
nation was against them, and had no manner of sympathy 
with or for them. The pulpits belonging to the larger part 
of the various denominations were opposed to tbem, 
whether any thing was preached in that line or not. The 
pulpits they controlled, or even had access to, were re- 
markably small in number. In the religious bodies of 
every Church, — Conventions, Associations, Conferences, 
and General Assemblies, — resolutions were passed against 
them, again and again. To be known as an " Abolitionist," 
or to be branded as such, whether justly or otherwise, was 
enough to shut a man out of the social circle, and out of 
the sympathy of religious men and religious bodies, in 
many places where the cue was given to the habits and 
usages of the higher grades of society; while ''dis- 
tinguished consideration," with more than a diplomatic 
significance, was often shown at the North to men who 
were identified with Southern institutions, and simply 
because they were so identified. 

All this is well known to the world. And yet, this " vile 
faction," in the face of such opposition, and with the 
simplest means, has revolutionized a mighty nation ; has 
led even the mass of the people who have been their re- 
vilers to sustain the Government in now at length vindica- 
ting those sentiments, and sustaining by a powerful array 
of armies that cause, for the whole origin of which they are 
held responsible. This is the aspect which the charge 
puts on, from the lips of those who make it, when it is con- 
fronted with the facts. What power wielded by a " con- 
temptible foction," thus to take twenty millions of enlight- 
ened people by the nose and mould them as though they 



EEPONSIBILITY OF ABOLITIOiaSTS. 81 

were but a nose of wax ! Did the world ever see the like 
before, except under Jesus of Nazareth and the twelve 
fishermen of Galilee ? Either, then, it must be admitted 
that it was the ideas which this "faction" propagated 
which have done the work, — horrible as those ideas 
were held to be, — or we must look elsewhere for the 
responsibility for the revolution through which we are 
passing.* 

EESPONSIBILITY OF ABOLITIONISTS DISCLAIMED AT THE 

SOUTH. 

It is well to note, that the more considerate among the 
advocates and apologists of the rebellion, even at the 
South, in Church or State, do not hold the Abolitionists 
responsible, as furnishing in their conduct the justifiable 
ground for secession. Take one example, from the South- 



*Here is a recent charge of the responsibility upon the abolitionists, from one of 
the most influential secular prints of the country, illustrating and sustaining what 
is said above. It is one of a thousand similar cases. The li'ew York Herald^ of 
July 16, 1864, closes an article upon '' The Truth of History,"' thus : 

" The abolition agitators did cause the rebellion at the South ; for they gave the 
rebel leaders the only pretext they needed to fire the Southern people and drag them 
into civil war. The fire-eaters tried to raise a rebellion on the tarifi" question ; but 
the people would not revolt. Then Greeley, Garrison, and the other abolitionists 
deliberately set to work to drive the South out of the Union. This has been con- 
fessed by Greeley, by Giirrison, and by Wendell Phillips, all of whom were original 
disunionists. Greeley wrote the first article in favor of secession that appeared in a 
Northern paper ; Wendell Phillips delivered the first speech in favor of the rebel con-' 
federacy from a Northern rostrum. Garrison declared that he trampled upon the 
infamous Constitution. The rebel leaders simply took advantage of the utter- 
ances of these abolitionists to coax and fi-ighten the people of the South into 
treason. They used the weapons with which Northern fanatics supplied them. 
They employed the arguments which Greeley and his colleagues furnished them. 
They worked in concert with the abolitionists, and for the same traitorous end. 
When South Carolina seceded, Greeley and Wendell Phillips raised howls of joy, 
which were only silenced by fears of the c(msequences when Northern patriots 
began to arm themselves against the rebels. This, we assert, is the exact truth of 
history. If Greeley's history asserts any thing difi'erent it is a false and lying book, 
and if General McClellan is abused for stating these facts he is abused fur speaking 
the truth, and Greeley knows it." 



82 EESPONSIBILITY FOR THE EEEELLION. 

er}i Presbyterian Review^ April, 1861, where the grounds 
of secession are argued at length, and justified. This is a 
fair specimen of the view taken by the more calm and 
reflecting portion of the rebel leaders : 

Let us proceed to the, second question : Why do the cotton-growing 
States desire to secede ? What reasons liave induced them to brave all 
the real difficulties, and all the possible dangers of secession ? Among 
the reasons assigned by the Princeton writer, onlj^ one is true, and 
that one is stated as it never entered the mind of any Southern man, 
living or dead, and could not, therefore, be subjectively a motive for 
their conduct. The fierce ravings of the Abolitionists have not caused the 
secession of the Southern States. This has, for many years, been a great 
annoyance ; but it could hardly be called a grievance. The wild outcries 
of the Abolitionists have excited very various emotions in the breasts of 
difterent Southern men. Some have been aroused to anger and scorn ; 
others have been amused; while those Avho agree with the Princeton 
Keview, that their language and spirit are execrably wicked, have 
heard them more in sorrow than in anger. They have felt that the dan- 
ger to be feared was for those in whose hearts these fierce fires were 
burning, and by whose lips such \vords of blasphemy were uttered. 
The high-spirited and fiery Southerners, as they are called, have borne 
for thirty years all that the fanatics could say, and they might very 
well have endured it a little longer. The proceedings of the incendiaries 
sent to the South to entice the slaves to abscond, or to stir them up to 
revolt and massacre, have not caused the secession of the Southern States. 
This is undoubtedly a very great grievance, but by no means so formi- 
dable as the people of the North generally suppose. 

As this disclaimer comes from a high source in the 
Presbyterian Church at the South, and undoubtedly repre- 
sents the sentiment of leading Southern men, — ex- 
cept among noisy politicians, who had sinister ends to 
gain by giving the abolitionists a prominence, — we ask for 
it the particular attention of a large class at the North 
(of whom Rev. Drs. Nathan L. Rice, of New York, and 
Samuel J. Baird, of New Jersey, are a good type among 
clergymen, and embracing also the editorial corps of the 



RESPONSIBILITY OF ABOLITIONISTS. 83 

major portion of the religious press, weekly and quarterly), 
who liave wasted much time in trying to convince the pass- 
ing generation of mortals, that, among Northern men, the 
abolitionists, and others whom they have stigmatized and 
misnamed such, have been the great fomenters of discord 
between the North and the South ; predicting that their 
course would at length bring the country into open conflict ; 
and, therefore, holding them now chiefly responsible for a 
fratricidal war. The w^orld well knows how persistently 
such declamation has been uttered for man^ years past. 
But the most serious-minded men of the South openly deny 
this. They " liardly" regard such opposition to slavery as 
a " grievance," in the manner in which they have most com- 
monly waged it. The real cause of their secession is quite 
another thing ; in a word, tli^ unwillingness of the tvhole 
people of the North and the National Government to yield 
to their exorbitant demands. 

And here is just where Judge Robertson and others 
make a serious mistake in intei-preting the sayings of 
certain men in tlie South Carolina Convention. They 
deny that the '* ravings of the abolitionists" had disturb- 
ed them seriously, just as tlie w^'iter in the lievieio we 
have quoted does. But, at the same time, they present 
the flict tliat the Northern people and Government as a 
w^HOLE were against them; that is, could not agree in ad- 
mitting " their rights" upon the slavery question to the 
full extent to which they demanded them; and hence 
they were determined to remain in the Union with them 
no longer. 

Instead of the abolitionists being held to the responsi- 
bility for what has occurred, so far as the revolt has any 
extenuation in the conduct of Northern men, it may yet be 
found that the chief responsibility rests upon quite another 
class ; upon many of those who have been the loudest in 
5 



84 EESPONSIBILITT FOE THE REBELLION. 

their denunciations of them, and who are ranked as lead- 
ing men in the Chm*ch and in the State. 

DISCUSSION THE GEEM OF THE TEOUBLING ELEMENT. 

The real difficulty, so far as irritating tlie South is con- 
cerned, was far more wide-spread than any thing which 
could be charged upon the abolitionists. It was not so 
much that they would " agitate" and act in their peculiar 
way, as it was that any action ivhatever should be taken 
upon slavery. That man has been a poor observer of events 
who does not know that the oifensive manner of dealing 
with the question was not the thing which gave the South 
imeasiness. It certainly was not, so for as the religious 
portion of the community was concerned. It was, rather, 
the discussion of the subject at all., in any manner, in any 
place, and by any persons. It had come to be fashionable 
to regard any entertainment of the subject as " agitation," 
and the term "abolitionist" was freely applied in order to 
frown down the mf>st respectful inquiry. It had not been 
possible for many years to introduce the subject into any 
of the large religions bodies in which men of the extreme 
South were members, v.ithont giving mortal offence, and 
leading to threats of ecL-lesiastical secession. The pleas 
against it were specious and plentiful, and somewhat con- 
tradictory. The matter had been "acted upon and settled" 
by the Church, and therefore should be " let alone." It 
was a " political question, with which the Church has noth- 
ing to do," and therefore should not be introduced. It 
was a " troublesome subject, and would rend the Church 
asunder." These and many more reasons were given; 
while Southern exti-emists, who would keep the subject 
out of the Church lest the Church should be defiled by its 
examination, were ever contending that it was an institu- 
tion sanctioned and regulated by the word of God. Any 



DISCUSSIOX TilE TROUBLING ELEMENT. 85 

form of its consideration, by the most serious minded men, 
except in the favoring interest of slavery, was stigmatized 
as " wicked agitation." Nothing but utter silence upon the 
question, imless in its favor, was pleasing to the class of 
slavery propagandists. We speak from personal knowledge 
and extended observation, and declare only what is noto- 
rious. 

At the very same time, the South was teeming with pub- 
lications, the newspaper, the sermon, the pamphlet, the 
quarterly and the octavo volume, put forth by her ablest 
writers, her Thorn wells and Palmers, her Hammonds and 
Cobbs, her Elliotts and Bledsoes, her Armstrongs and 
Smylies, statesmen, lawyers, divines, vying with each 
other to sanctify and glorify the system of Southern bond- 
age as a " blessing," socially, politically, religiously ; while, 
in perfect accord with all this, in the North were found 
apologists and defenders of the system from the same 
classes and professions, and through the same means ; and 
yet, many of these Northern men were ready to raise the 
hue and cry of " agitation" and " abolitionism" if any thing 
were said against the system, unless it were emasculated of 
all the pungency and pith which would give it force. In 
a word, although discussion was feared as a fiend, it could 
be tolerated, and even applauded, provided it were on the 
rigcht side.* 



* To give an illustration of what some great men thought about discussion on this 
subject, and how it could be disposed of, we refer to the proposition of a distin- 
guished statesman. In the early part of 1S61, soon after the secession of South Caro- 
lina, when many men in the Border States were striving to produce a " reconciliation 
between the North and the South," the Hon. John P. Kennedy, of Baltimore, pub- 
lished a pamphlet, entitled, "The Border States: Their Power and Duty," &c. He 
gives a series of propositions which the Border States should submit to the two 
sections, and among them this about discussing the subject of slavery: "Finally, 
a pledge to be given by the free States to exert their influence, as far as possible, 
to discourage discussions of slavery in atoneoffensire to the interests of the slave- 
holding States." The alternative, on the failure of the proposed negotiations, is thus 



86 3JESP0XSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

It is a notorious feet, as regards tlie great body of the 
people of the United States who were in prhiciple opposed 
to shivery, that the utmost they did to manifest their oppo- 
sition was to discuss and determine its merits ; and this 
they felt bound to do, especially in consequence of its more 
recent and extravagant claims. The measure of their re- 
sponsibility for the rebellion and the war is thus easily 
gauged. It is equally notorious, that this discussion, and 
the conclusions formed concerning the system, Vv^ere the 
chief things which gave the concocters of the rebellion 
mortal oifence. TJieir responsibility is thus just as easily 
determined. Who, then, are responsible for this heritage 
of woes ? Must the South boar it all ? Is the North to 
bear no share of it ? 



presented: "But in the advervse event of these stipulations, or satisfactory equiva- 
lents for them, being refused, the Border States and their allies of the South who 
may be disposed to act with them, will be forced to consider the Union impractica- 
ble, and to organize a separate Confederacy of the Border States, with the associa- 
tion of such of the Southern and free States as may be willing to accede to the 
proposed conditions." On a subsequent page he save, the italics being his own : 
" But let the free States everywhere, and the sober, reflective, and honest men in 
them, understand, that the old Union is an impos-sihilitij unless the agitation of 
slavery is bro^ight to an encV These extracts are suggestive : (1.) Mr. Kennedy^ 
like some other men in the Border slave States, takes the position that slavery was 
not the cause of the rebellion, and yet all his proposals for " reconciliation" are 
made with reference to slavery in some of its bearings; giving- thus, unwittingly, 
the proof that slavery was in reality the cause. (2.) The real difficulty was not that 
the subject was discussed "in a tone offensive,'* but that it was discussed at all. 
Discussion in any form or spirit was " ofiensive,'" unless it was in favor of the sys- 
tem. (8.) But the most remarkable thing here is, that so distinguished a gentleman, 
once a cabinet minister, should at any time have seriously proposed (and he is by 
no means the only statesman in this category) any State action, iua popular govern- 
ment, " to discourage discussion''" on any subject; and especially with the alterna- 
tive of dissolving the Union, unless his proposed concessions, demanded by the siib- 
ject upon which discussion was to be precluded, were granted. But the country 
can well aftbrd, at this later day, to pass over some things of this kind which then 
took strong hold of many minds; and of Mr. Kennedy this can be said on two 
grounds. He, like a large portion of his countrymen, has obtained some new ideas 
since then ; and during the present year he has given his powers, with other leading 
men of Maryland, to the work of entirely removing slavery from that State. Some 
Border State men make no advance on the subject — unless it be backward. 



EESPOXSIBILITY OF POLITICIANS. 87 

WHAT CLASS OF XOETHERN MEN KESPONSIBLE. 

Here is where the case pinches, and yet the sohition of 
the question is most easy. We freely concede that a cer- 
tain part of the people of the North have a portion of this 
responsibility to bear, but it is not that small and un- 
iniiuential class whom Judge Robertson, and other writers 
who agree with him, would hold' up to the public gaze ; 
nor yet that larger number who manifested their dissent 
by discussion. It is rather that class of men in Church "^ 
and State, — politicians, editors, divines, and others, who 
are always influential in forming, controlling, or echoing 
public opinion, — who have ever been crying out about an 
infringement of Southern rights, making apologies for the 
South, courting the smiles of the Southern people, and 
yielding, step by step, to their extreme demands. So far 
as provocative action may be charged with responsibility, 
in yielding to the clamors of Southern passion, and ex- 
citing Southern men to demand more and more in conces- 
sion to slavery, this class may be justly held to a large ; 
measure of it, "^ 

EESPOXSIBILITT AMOXG POLITICIAXS NORTH. 

The " claims of the South" were always in the market. 
They were put up to the highest bidder in the political 
contests of the country. They formed the central plank 
in political platforms. We state nothing more than is 
known and read of all men, when we say that that party 
which for many years before the rebellion began had com- 
monly the control of the General Government, was always 
the successful competitor ; and having once and long ao-o 
established with the South its subserviency and fidelity, 
it held its position undisputed. No slave was ever more 
obedient to his master. This was seen in its conventions, 



88 KESPOXSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

in its platforms, in its primary meetings, upon the stump, 
at elections, in Congress, in the Supreme Court. Certain 
concessions emboldened Southern j^oliticians to demand 
what had never been dreamed of by the founders of the 
Government ; but the demand was no sooner made than 
it was granted, and generally, in latter days, in the name 
of the supreme organic law ; so that, at length, the doc- 
trine of Southern Statesmen, and of nearly the whole 
Southern people, was precisely that stated by Dr. Thorn- 
well, in his elaborate vindication of the secession of South 
Carolina : " The Constitution covers the Avhole territory 
of the Union, and throughout that territory has taken 
slavery under the protection of law ;" a doctrine, as un- 
derstood at the South, which would have startled the 
framers of the Constitution, and which is nevertheless but 
the echo of the celebrated declaration of President Bu- 
chanan about Kansas while it was yet a Territory, that 
slavery existed there in fact and by the Constitution of 
the United States, as truly as it existed in Georgia and 
South Carolina. 

RESPONSIBILITY AMONG CHURCHMEN NORTH. 

The subserviency of Northern politicians had its coun- 
terpart within the Northern Churches, and in those eccle- 
siastical bodies which extended into all parts of the Union. 
We do not mean that corruption, bargaining, and sale, for 
place and profit, occurred in like manner ; but the dispo- 
sition to apologize, extenuate, stifle discussion, and yield 
to Southern wishes, lest slavery should receive some dam- 
age, or somebody or something connected with it, some- 
v.here or somehow, should be in some manner or in some 
degree hurt, in purse, feeling, or character; all this has 
been too frequently illustrated in the higher courts of the 
Church, and defended by religious journals, and makes too 



SOUTHSIDE VIEW OF NOKTHEEN CLERGYMEN. 89 

prominent and frequent a figure in our recent religious 
history, scarcely to need in these pages any recurrence to 
the facts except in a general statement. And yet it may 
be well to confirm this view by a bare reference to the 
influence this course had upon the South, as seen in 
Southern testimony. 

SOUTHSIDE VIEW OF XORTIIEEISr CLERGYMEX. 

A man's standing and influence are generally pretty 
well determined by the estimation in which he is held by 
his judicious friends. Taking this as a fair criterion of 
judgment, we have only to turn the eye South to perceive 
how certain I?^orthern men in the Cliurch were regarded 
upon those questions which politically and religiously 
divided the country, and at length terminated in rebellion 
and war, and thus to see on which side their influence for 
many years, when these difticulties were culminating, was 
thrown. 

If in taking this Southern observation we are led to 
give names, it is because we find them presented in the 
South, and because they are prominent persons and repre- 
sentative men of a large class at the North. If special 
distinct' on i> given to individuals, it only shows how 
highly their services were valued; and if they are now 
found at last upon the side of the country and its real 
interests, it only serves to make the lamentation at the 
loss of their services the more bitter, and to give the sar- 
casm in which it is expressed a keener point. 

Tiie SoxUhern Presbytericm^ a religious weekly published 
at Columbia, South Carolma, is a good authority upon the 
point in hand. In its issue of February 23, 1861, it refers, 
as " a sign of the times," to a discussion then going on 
between Rev. William Matthews, of Georgia, and Rev. 
Dr. N. L. Rice, then editor of the Presbyterian Expositor^ 



00 EESPOXSIBTLITY FOR THE EEBELLION. 

at Chicago. The Southern editor, Rev. A. A. Porter, 

says : 

We do not intend to report the particulars of tins correspondence, 
which would be profitless. We allude to it for a different purpose. 
We have called it a sign of the times! We regard it as such for 
several reasons : Because Dr. Rice, who lias heretofore been dis- 
tinguished as a deftndtr of slaver ij and the South, and as an antagonist of 
the antislavery party, now has wheeled about with Dr. Hodge, and, 
like him, appears on the other side, against the Souih and Slavery. 
We have heard much of late about a reaction in the North in favor of 
the South, and have been assured that our cause was gaining ground 
there. Does this look like it ? 

To appreciate fully the point here made, it is only ne- 
cessary to bear in mind that this comes from one who 
well knows the course of opinion and discussion in the 
Church and the country, and that it comes from the capi- 
tal of South Carolina. If the course of Dr. Rice for 
twenty years past has such an estimation in such a quar- 
ter, — where, to be " a defender of slavery and the South," 
imd to be " distinguished" as such, has a meaning whose 
significance cannot be mistakei], — it is better testimony 
than any ive could give to show how great has been his 
influence, and on whicli side it has been exerted, dui'ing 
the gestation period of that gigantic iniquity which at 
length gathered sufficient strength from such nutriment 
to come forth armed and equipped to make war upon 
good government and popular liberty. This same article 
pronounces Dr. Rice "probably the adroitest debater now 
living," — another indication of the high esteem in wliich 
his defences of *' Slavery and the South" were held, — and 
thousands at the North well know, that had not the class 
of which he is so prominent a rej)resentative taken the 
course they did, there would have been formed such a 
public sentiment in the Church at least as would have 



SOUTHSIDE VIEW OF NOETHEEISr CLEKGYME^S^. 91 

checked the growing proslaveryism and spirit of dotnina- 
tion in the South, and which would have gone far towards 
preventing secession, treason, rebellion, and war. 

The name of Dr. Hodge occurs in the foregoing para- 
graph, associated with that of Dr. Rice. It appears, how- 
ever, and we should in justice state, that he is not claimed 
as having given his influence to the South in the same 
manner. Southern men diflier upon the point, it is true. 
Dr. Armstrong, in his " Christian Doctrine of Slavery," 
frequently quotes Dr. Hodge as sustaining his own views ; 
and Dr. Armstrong, it is well known, as seen in that book 
and in his discussions with Dr. Van Rensselaer, though 
mild in his terms and eminently Christian in his spirit, 
maintained and vindicated the extreme view, substantially, 
of the system taken at the South. It is well known, too, 
that Dr. Hodge's writings on slavery have been extensively 
circulated and approved at the South, and have undoubt- 
edly exerted a large influence to make the Southern people 
quite contented with the status of the institution, and quite 
willing it should be perpetuated. It is possible, also, that 
in the above paragraph the editor designs to put Drs. Rice 
and Hodge in the same category, and yet it is not proba- 
ble ; for in a subsequent paper he speaks very diflerently 
of the latter. 

In reply to a correspondent, who refers to " the course of 
Dr. Hodge, Dr. Rice, Dr. Lord, Dr. Breckinridge, and Dr. 
Engles," in regard to the state of the country, as " unex- 
pected," and who, notwithstanding that " course," sr.ys of 
them, " They are every one with us, and against aboli- 
tionists, on the slavery question^'' — deeming the fact so 
important as to array the sentence in italics, — the editor, 
the Rev. A. A. Porter, in The Southern JPreshyterian of 
March 30, 1861, thus excepts by name two of the persons 
concerned : 

.5* 



92 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

We cannot agree with our correspondent that the views of the eminent 
men whom he names, on the slavery question, are acceptable lo Soutli- 
ern Presbyterians. Our readers, who n.oticed the communication of 
" Georgia," in our last number, mu.st be convinced that there is a wide 
and radical difference between us and Dr. Hodge on that subject. Dr. 
Breckinridge, it is well known, is, and always has been, an emancipa- 
tionist — that is, in favor of the gradual abolition of slavery. So is Dr. 
Hodge, So, we doubt not, are almost the entire body of Northern 
Presbyterians. 

It thus appears, that while Dr. Hodge is quoted favor- 
ably by Dr. Armstrong at Norfolk, Virginia, he is not 
deemed sound in South Carolina and Georgia. Latitude 
sometimes affects men's views of moral questions. He is 
by no means put in the category with Dr. Rice, at the 
South ; for, although Dr. Rice has said some hard things 
of slavery, and has been regarded as an " emancipationist" 
also, at least at the Xorth, he has, nevertheless, always 
taken such a course, and illustrated so highly the peculiar 
skill of " the adroitest debater now living," that the South, 
— even " the extremists" among them, as we see, — claimed 
him as their man ^j>ar excellence^ to do their work at the 
North, and thus give them substantial " aid and comfort." 
Hence they have always spoken of him kindly, and valued 
his services at a very high figure. This is shown as truly 
in their incidental references as it would be in a more 
elaborate commendation, and at the same time the thing is 
done with a better grace. Here is another specimen, in 
The Southern Presbyterian of April 27, 1861, where the 
South Carolina editor again laments that he can count no 
longer on the services of his quondam friend : 

No less authority than Dr. N. L. Eice, who has been regarded in ihe 
South as OUR BEST FRIEND at the North, and who, if we mistake not, 
drew up the act of 1845, which was supposed by the South to be a 
decision in our favor, tells us that we must not interpret that as revers- 
ing former acts. 



KESPONSIBILITY OF NOliTHEKN MEN. 93 

Et TU, Brute I The " decision" here referred to, is 
that made by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church upon slavery, and this is one of the incidental 
evidences to show how that famous paper, of which Dr. 
Rice is the author, was regarded by the South Carolina 
type of proslaveryism. 

EESPOIS^SIBILITY OF NORTHERN MEN THUS DETERMINED. 

We need not go further in our citations. The fact is 
undeniable, that a large and influential class among cler- 
gymen and editors in the Church of all branches at the 
North, exerted such an influence for a long course of 
years, whether so intended or not, as to foster that 
spirit, and countenance those claims put forth by the 
South, which led Southern demagogues to believe that 
they could rule the country according to their own pecu- 
liar notions, and could count upon their Northern friends 
to sustain them; or, failing to rule it, could divide the 
country, and still look with confidence to their support. 
Hence their pitiful cries when, in the hour of need, they 
found they were forsaken. 

In regard to certain religious men at the North, — and 
perhaps the same may be said of politicians, who, Mr. 
Jefferson said, were " allies" of the South, — we accord to 
them a sincere, though, we think, a mistaken course of 
speech and action. Some of them have siuce frankly 
acknowledged that their course was wrong. It tended to 
deceive the Southern Church. Since the rebellion began, 
Southern divines have denounced this class of men most 
unsparingly, and so have Southern journals, both of the 
weekly and periodical press. They have even pronounced 
them hypocrites. All this is very natural, even though 
we admit it to be unjust. But of those who have always 
opposed their extravagant claims, they have spoken with 



94 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

more respect, though, for them, they have manifested no 
warmer love. 

It is likewise well known, that those Northern poli- 
ticians who were Southern " allies," have been treated in 
no mild manner at the South, while the Republican 
party, and even the Abolitionists, have been spoken of 
with that higher consideration, comparatively regarded, 
which one esteemed an open foe always inspires. It 
is, for example, quite probable, that the reason why 
they so bitterly denounce General Butler, is as much 
owing to the fact that he was always so prominent and 
able in their political councils, and instead of taking a 
stand with them when the breach occurred, as they had 
hoped he would, was found in command of a Union army, 
as it was owing to the stringent rule he exercised in New 
Orleans. We do not hold this class of public men entirely 
responsible for the rebellion, though it is unquestionable, 
from the speeches of some of them, during the winter and 
spring of 1860-61, before the attack upon Fort Sumter, 
made in Congress and out of it, that the Southern leaders 
still counted upon them as " allies," believed they would 
stand by them in an open clash of arms, that the North 
would thus be divided, and that the rebellion would have 
an easy triumph. The fact cannot be denied, that there 
was good reason for believing that this reliance had a bet- 
ter foundation than many things that are taken for granted. 
It is undoubtedly true that the Southern leaders were so 
far forth deceived, and were thus emboldened to do what 
otherTvise they might have been restrained from doing, 
and to this extent these Northern poHticians were responsi- 
ble ; while, on the other hand, some of these " allies" 
were themselves deceived, believing that Southern men 
would not dare to strike the blow.* 

* We do not put General Butler in this category. He did not, at tlm period, taka 



EESPONSIBILITY OF XOKTHERN MEN. 9'5 

We have good reason to believe, also, that the leaders 
of the Southern Church, as we have already intimated, 
were stimulated to become active promioters of the rebel- 
lion, by virtue of the hold which they believed they still 
had upon their special friends at the ]*^orth ; supposing, at 
first, that their secession might be effected peaceably, or, 
if it came at last to an open clash of arms, that their fiith 
ful " allies " would still stand by them. 

The responsibility for the rebellion, so far as the North is 
concerned, is thus not difficult of adjustment. It rests not 
upon the abolitionists; the South themselves repudiate 
this idea. It rests rather upon those, in Church and State, 
who have countenanced Southern extremists, and who 
were claimed by them as favoring their views ; the " adroit- 
est debaters" in Congressional halls and Church courts, and 
who upon the stump and through the press were " distin- 
guished as defenders of slavery and the South ;" in this 
manner nourishing and sustaining Southern men up to such 

any course to deceive the rebels, nor was he himself deceived as to (heir designs. 
On the contrary, in December, 1S60, soon after the secession of South Carolina, 
"General Butler went to Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, an old acquaintance, 
though long a political opponent, and told him that the Southern leaders meant 
icar, and urged him to join in advising the Governor of their State to prepare the 
militia of Massachusetts for taking the field." " One tiling he considered absolutely 
certain : there was going to be a war between Loyalty and Treason ; between the 
Slave Power and the Power which had so long protected and fostered it. He found 
the North anxious, but still incredulous. He went to Governor Andrew, and gave 
him a full relation of what he had seen and heard at Washington, and advised him 
to get the militia of the State in readiness to move at a day's notice. He suggested 
that all the men should be quietly withdrawn from the militia force who were 
either unable or unwilling to leave the State for the defence of the Capital and 
their places supplied with men who could and would. The Governor, though he 
could scarcely yet believe that war was impending, adopted the suggestion. About 
one-half the men resigned their places in the militia; the vacancies were quickly 
filled; and many of the companies, during the winter months, drilkd every 
evening in the week, except Sundays.'''— Parioivs Butler in Kew Orleans, ch. ii. 
It was unquestionably owing to General Butler's suggestions, as above related, 
that so large a number of Massachusetts troops were able to obey the call of 
the President so promptly, in April, 1S61, occasioned by the attack upon Port 
Sumter. 



96 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

a point of preposterous demand for their claims, that at 
length the masses of the people rose in their sovereign 
majesty to throw off the incubus, and restore the Govern- 
ment to its true and original status. 

NORTHERN RESPONSIBILITY IN ANOTHER LIGHT. 

It has often been said that the people of the North had 
no business to trouble themselves about the question of 
slavery in any aspect of the case, as the South were alone 
responsible for the institution. This has been the short 
argument, many a time, employed agamst Northern men : 
" It is none of your business ; if it is a sin, the Southern 
people only are guilty of it ; if it is a social evil, or a polit- 
ical matter, it is wholly their concern; therefore, let it 
alone." 

These are radical errors ; and yet, so shrewd a man as 
Dr. Thornwell sustains them. He says : 

The responsibility of slavery is not upon the non-slaveholding States. It 
is not created by their laws, but by the laws of the slaveholding States ; 
and all they do in the case of the fugitive from his master, is to remand 
him to the jurisdiction of the laws from which he has escaped. They 
have nothing to do with the justice or injustice of the laws themselves. 
— Fast-Day Sermon, Nov. 21, 18G0. 

We have no complaint to make of the opinions of the North consid- 
ered simply as their opinions. They have a right, so far as human 
authority is concerned, to think as they please. The South has never 
asked them to approve of slavery, or \o change their own institutions 
and to introduce it among themselves. The South has been willing to 
accord to them the most perfect and unrestricted right of private judg- 
onent. But what we do complain of, and what we have a right to com- 
plain of, is, ^7ia^ they should not he content with thinking their own thoughts 
themselves, but should undertake to make the Government think them 
likewise. — So. Pres. Rev., Jan., 1861. 

These are erroneous oj^inions, in any true consideration 
of the case • and most flagrantly so in view of the changes 



SLAVERY MAY BE EXAMINED AT THE NORTH. 97 

which have occurred, within a recent period in our history, 
in Southern sentiment, upon the social, moral, and politi- 
cal status of slavery. 

SLAVERY MAY BE EXAMINED AT THE NORTH. 

These are errors, politically considered. Dr. Thorn- 
w^ell's argument, in both the articles above quoted, is to 
show that slavery is national. He says, as before given : 
" The Constitution covers the whole territory of the Union, 
and throughout that territory has taken slavery under the 
protection of law." Admitting for the sake of the argu- 
ment that this is so, it follows that slavery is a matter for 
the consideration of the whole people, and their responsi- 
bility is involved in every national aspect of the institu 
tion ; to see that its relations to the Constitution are un- 
derstood aright and are properly maintained. His prem- 
ises being admitted, the conclusion is inevitable. But 
without admitting the extreme views which Southern 
politicians have often advanced in more recent times, 
which are not sustained by the founders of the Govern- 
ment, and which we presume Dr. Thornwell intends to 
cover by the sentence just quoted, all statesmen agree that 
in any true relation of the Constitution to slaveiy, the insti- 
tution, in some of its most important bearings, is one of 
national concern and national responsibihty. More espe- 
cially is this true in the light of Southern claims which are 
believed to be totally at variance wdth the Constitution. 
It was incumbent on every Northern statesman, and Upon 
every Northern citizen, to note whither such sentiments 
were tending, and to act accordingly. It is perfectly 
immaterial, however, to the present point, which construc- 
tion of the Constitution is right, the Northern or the South- 
ern. In either case, slavery is a matter for national con- 
sideration. In a purely political light, therefore, Dr. 



98 EESPONSIBILITT FOR THE KEBELLION. 

Thornwell makes a most ill-founded complaint of the peo- 
ple of the non-slaveholding States, in "that they should 
not be content with thinking their own thoughts them- 
selves." 

His position is equally false in morals. The relation 
which the people of the North sustain to slavery political- 
ly, makes its moral status of necessity one of just concern 
to them. If it is an evil in any sense, if a sin in itself, or 
if all its evils are merely incidental to the relation, still the 
inevitable connection of the whole peoi»le with it, through- 
the structure of the common Government, fixes upon them 
the responsibility in no small degree of its moral status and 
relations, whatever they may be. It is utterly erroneous 
to say that the people of the non-slaveholdiug States " have 
nothing to do with the justice or injustice" of the institu- 
tion, or even " of the laws themselves" by which it is reg- 
ulated. If they are concerned with it at all, if they are 
obliged to return fugitives that escape from slavery to the 
jurisdiction of the laws from which they have fled, or if 
they have any other duty to discharge under that instru- 
ment which gives the institution any national status what- 
ever, then they have a right to inquire into any thing and 
every thing which gives it character ; and especially into 
its moral status, for they and the slaves themselves are 
moral beings. The whole people of the non-slaveholding 
States may consider every moral element and bearing of 
the institution, and may -approve or condemn, in whole or 
in part, according to their best judgment, and act as right- 
eousness demands. Nor can any past settlement of prin- 
ciples concerning it, or any opinion entertained of it, by 
the fathers, or by anybody else, preclude their right thus to 
do ; for they must act on their own responsibility before 
God. 

But most especially, — if, indeed, there can be any differ- 



A SUBJECT FOR ALL ISIANKlND. 99 

ence, — is it their privilege not only, but tlieir right and 
solemn duty, to compass the whole suhject, when the 
South, well nigh or quite universally, abandoning the opin- 
ions concerning it held substantially by the whole country 
in the early days of the Republic, — by statesmen and di- 
vines, — have latterly taught that slavery is riglit and a 
"blessing," is an "Ordinance of God" and a "school of 
virtue,"* and is vindicated throughout the whole Scrip- 
tures. What the people of the North have claimed,' is, to 
examine these pretensions, to see whether the Fatheis both 
of the Church and of the State in this country were right 
or wrong, and having formed a judgment to act accord- 
ingly ; and this is the whole they have claimed. 

A SUBJECT FOR ALL MANKIND. 

Nor is this all. The moment the claim is made that 
Southern slavery is sanctioned and sanctified by the Word 
of God, and is on a par with the conjugal and parental 
relations, the whole subject is thrown open to the discus- 
sion of all people in this country not only, but to tlie entire 
Christian world to whom the Scriptures are given. Under 
the modern claims for Southern negro slavery, it is the 
idlest of all possible objections to say of Christians of even 
any foreign nation, that "they have nothing to do with 
the justice or injustice" of the institution. If it is a per- 
fectly Scriptural system, as is claimed, they may inquire 
into it, as they may into any social system claiming such a 
sanction ; as into polygamy in Utah, or into any of the 

* " strange as it may sound to those who are not familiar with the system, Slave- 
ry is a school of virtue, and no class of men have furnishe<l sublimer instances of 
heroic devotion than slaves in their loyalty and love to their masters. We have 
seen them rejoice at the cradle of the infant, and weep at the bier of the dead ; and 
there are few amongst ns. perhaps, who have not drawn their nourishment from 
their generous breasts,"— (Ju;f&^i>c/y Sermon.) Some naturalists tell us that there 
are certain "irrational animals" who give the same illustratiuns of "virtue." 



100 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

systems of heathenism ; and the same if it is not sustained 
by Scripture ; and to determine whether it is or not thus 
sanctioned, they must examine it, for there is no other way 
of arriving at the truth. 

And beyond this, we may say that the principle of self- 
defence and self-preservation, — " the first law of life," — 
impels to this course. We have seen that it was a part of 
the scheme of the rebel leaders to make the wdiole North 
slaveholding, and to people its lands with slaves fresh from 
Africa. The same men think that Europe would be better 
off with slavery. If, then, such a change has taken place 
in this country as to lead men to applaud it where it was 
once only tolerated, and to declare it in every sense a 
" blessing," where once it w^as pronounced a " curse" to 
all concerned, who can tell but like transformations may 
occur elsewhere, and among other nations ? 

FREE SOCIETY PITIED AND LAMENTED. 

Is it not well known that eminent Southern wu'iters, not 
content to enjoy the blessings of slavery alone, have ex- 
pressed their pity for the social condition of the North ; 
have lamented "the failure of free society;" have become 
eloquent upon " the organization of labor ;" have predicted 
that the North would be obliged to resort to their system 
to prevent anarchy and ruin ; and upon these convictions 
have recommended themselves to imitation by all the 
nations of the earth ? Dr. Thornwell says : 

We confidently anticipate the time when the nations that now rcrilo 
us woukl ghadly change places with us. In its last analysis, slavery is 
nothing but an organization of labor. * * * Society is divided be- 
tween princes and beggars. If labor is left free, how is this condition of 
things to be obviated? The Government must either make provision 
to support people in idleness, or it must arrest the la-^ of population and 
keep them from being born, or it must organize labor. * * * Oa 
what principle shall labor be organized so as to make it certain tiiat the 



SLAVERY THE CONDITION FOR ALL LABORERS. 101 

laborer shall never be without employment, and emplojniient adequate 
for his support? The only loay in which it can be done, as a permanent 
arrangement, is by converting the laborer into capital; that is, by giving 
the employer a right of property in the labor employed ; in other words, 
BY SLAVERY. * * * Tliat non-sluveholcUng States will eventually hare 
to organize labor, and to introduce something so like slavery that it will 
be impossible to discriminate between them, or to suffer from the most 
violent and disastrous insurrections against the system which creates 
and perpetuates their misery, seems to be as certain as the tendencies 
in the laws of capital and population to produce the extremes of poverty 
and wealth. We do not envy them their social condition. * * * AYe 
desire to see no such state of things among ourselves, and we accept as 
a good and merciful constitution tlie organization of labor which Provi- 
dence has given us in slavery. — Fast-Day Sermon. 

SLAVERY THE PROPER CONDITION FOR ALL LABORERS. 

The plain English of the foregoing is, that Dr. Thorn- 
well would have all the laborers in every nation reduced to 
slavery. He would not merely go to Africa for laborers, 
but would reduce every wJtite man who is compelled to 
labor, from freedom to slavery. Dr. Palmer joins his 
lamentation over freedom to the laborer, and over the 
perils of free society, as follows: 

The so-called Free State-s are working out the social problem under 
conditions peculiar to themselves. These conditions are sufficiently hard, 
and their success is too uncertain to excite in us the least jealousy of 
their lot. With a teeming population, which the soil cannot support— 
with their wealth depending upon arts, created by artificial wants — v/ith 
an eternal friction between the grades of their society — with their labor 
and their capital grinding each other like the upper and nether millstones 
— with labor cheapened and displaced by new mechanical inventions, 
bursting more asunder the bonas of biotherhood; amid these intricate 
perils loe have ever given them our sympathy and our prayers, and have 
never sought to weaken the foundations of their social order. God 
grant them complete success in the solution of all their perplexities ! — 
Thanksgiving Discourse. 

We sincerely thank the kind man for his " sympathy and 



102 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

prayers" coDcerning fi state of tilings of which he knows 
so little; but we do not think the greatest sufferers in 
" the so-called Free States" are quite willing to say they 
are ready to be reduced to that "system of organized 
labor" which is here marked out for them. 

The mild and amiable Dr. Armstrong, of Norfolk, Vir- 
ginia, does not leave it to inevitable inference, but states 
it in terms, that the lahite laborers of Europe are the pro- 
per subjects of whom to make slaves. This is his view of 
the matter : 

It may be that sucli a slavery, regulating the relations of capital and 
labor, though implying some deprivation of personal liberty, will prove 
a better defence of the poor against the oppression of the rich, than 
the too great freedom in which capital is placed in many of the Free 
States of Europe at the present day. Something of this kind is what the 
masses of free laborers in France are clamoring for under the name of 
the " right to labor." - * * It may be that Christian slavery [the 
author's italics] is God's solution of the problem about which the 
wisest statesmen of Europe confess themselves "at fault," — Glirislian 
Doctrine of Slacery. 

These Christian Doctors of Divinity, so eloquent and 
earnest upon " Christian Slavery ;" so tearful and prayerful 
over the condition of society at the North; so anxious to 
have all laborers, white and black, blonde and brunette, in 
America and Europe, reduced to slavery, the only distinc- 
tion being that the "rich" shall be the masters and the 
" poor" their slaves, — and who would, upon this principle 
alone, illustrate "the organization of labor" in every nation 
upon earth, allowing masters only to carry a pocket dic- 
tionary from a Southern press (if the South ever printed 
one) to define "poor" and "rich," — are of course sup- 
ported in all this by the politicians and economists of tiie 
South. In De Boid''s Review for ISTovember, 1857, one of 
them discourseth as follows, on " Southern Thought :" 



SLAVERY THE CONDITION" FOR ALL LABORERS. 103 

"We must teacli that slavery is necessary in all societies, as well to pro- 
tect, as to govern the weak, poor, and ignorant. This is the opposite 
doctrine to that of the pohtical economists. We should show that slave 
society, which is a series of subordinations, is consistent with Christian 
morahty — for fathers, masters, husbands, wives, children, and slaves, 
not being equals, rivals, competitors, and antag-onists, best promote each 
other's selfish interests when they do most for those above or beneath 
them. "Within the precincts of the family, including slaves, the golden 
rule is a practical and wise guide of conduct. But in free society, where 
selfishness, rivalry, and competition, are necessary to success, and 
almost to existence, this rule cannot be adopted in practice. It would 
reverse the whole action of such society, and make men martyrs to their 
virtues. * * * -^^g^ of ^j^g South, can build up an ethical code 
founded on the morality of the Bible, because human interests with us 
do not generally clash, but coincide. Without the family circle, it is 
rrue, competition and clashing interests exist, but slavery leaves few 
without the family, and the little competition that is left is among the 
"•ich and skilful, and serves to keep society progressive. It is enough 
chat slavery wih reheve common laborers of the evils of competition, 
and the exactions of skill and capital * * * Southern thought will 
teach that protection and slavery must go hand in hand, for we cannot 
efficiently protect those whose conduct we cannot control. * * * 
It is the duty of society to protect all its members, and it can only do so 
by subjecting each to that degree of government constraint, or slavery, 
which will best advance the good of each and of the whole. Thus 
ambition, or the love of power, properly directed, becomes the noblest 
of virtues, because power alone can enable us to be safely benevolent to 
the weak, poor, or criminal To protect the weak, we must first enslave 
THEM, and this slavery must be either political and legal, or social 
* * * Slavery is necessary as an educational institution, and is ivorth 
ten times all the common schools of the North. Such common schools 
teach only uncommonly bad morals, and prepare their inmates to gradu- 
te in the penitentiary, as the statistics of crime at the Xorth abundantly 
prove. * * * We, of the South, assume that man has all along in- 
stinctively understood and practised that social and pohtical government 
best suited to his nature, and that domestic slavery is, in the general a 
natural and necessary part of that government, and that its absence is oiuing 
to a decaying diseased state of society, or to something exceptional in 
local circumstances, as in desert, or mountainous, or new countries 
where competition is no evil, because capital has no mastery over labor. 



104 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE REBELLION. 

WHO, NOW, IS RESPONSIBLE ? 

The render is no doubt willing to rest here ; these les- 
sons in political economy are sufficient for his present 
reflection. The divines and the economists whose views 
are now given, are among the foremost leaders of the 
rebellion ; were those who, at the earliest moment, urged 
it on, and those whose teachings for twenty years past 
had helped to prepare the Southern people for the work 
in which they are to-day engaged, on a hundred fields of 
carnage and blood, where lie the bleaching bones of the 
flower of a generation of young men ; and they are those 
who have, during every step in the progress of the war, by 
prayers and counsels, and active aid in the armies of trea- 
son, given all their might to bring forth these legitimate 
fruits of the seed they have sown. This is their work; for 
it they are responsible. 

The laborers and mechanics of the N'orth, — all the 
"poor," indeed, of every class, — may see the feast which 
was elaborately prepared for them, and the destiny which 
inevitably awaited them, could the South have had their 
way in the unlimited and nnchecked control of the Gov- 
ernment ; and they may learn, in this, the real character of 
that rebellion, to put down Avhich the Government has 
called the people to arms. 

All may see, in the light of these sentiments, the real 
nature of that system, and the real character of its suppor- 
ters, that have found npologists and extenuators in the North 
for these many years past, in the " adroitest debaters" and 
most " distinguished defenders of slavery and the South," 
in Church and State. While these men were sowing 
broadcast these seeds through every means in their power, 
it was deemed a labor of love to prepare for them the soil. 
While they could teach their doctrines at will, and pity 



WHO, NOW, IS EESPOXSIBLE ? 105 

that condition of "free society," and mourn over that hard- 
ness of heart which would not receive them, it was deemed 
" agitation," " agitation," '"' agitation," nothing but wicked 
interference with matters which concerned them not, for 
pulpit, or press, or Church court, to raise even a gentle 
note of remonstrance. While some who had the sagacity 
to see Avhat was ine^dtably coming upon the Church and 
upon the country from such teachings, and who had the 
boldness and the foithfulness to God's truth to declare it, 
— and whose far-t>ightedness the result has remarkably 
verified, — have been, for that very faithfulness, exiled by 
the Church from posts of usefulness to which their qualifi- 
cations and labors eminently entitled them, others, chiefly 
instrumental in this ostracism, have been honored by South- 
ern votes with high stations, and have illustrated their 
faithfulness by eminent subserviency to those who so long 
controlled them. But for all deeds there is a day of reck- 
oning ; and we are quite sure the Church itself is begm- 
ning to understand those who have been true to her inter- 
ests and those ^vho have dishonored and betrayed her. 

When the day shall eventually come to write the history 
of this rebellion, it will not be difficult, so far as men of 
the North are concerned, to determine the true measure 
of their responsibility. And when the full character and 
aims of the rebel leaders shall be understood, it will be the 
judgment of the historian, as it is now the conviction of 
the loyal masses of the people, that such a disease as had 
thus fastened itself upon the body politic, could not be 
purged from it except through the agency of gunpowder 
— the means which the rebels themselves invoked. 



108 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAE. 



CHAPTER IV. 

RESPO^TSiBiLIJTY FOR BEGINNINa AND COXTINUING- THE 

WAR. 

The South admit that they took the mitiative for seces- 
sion)^ but charge the North with having begun the toar. 
This charge has been made from the beginning, and is 
deemed so clear that it admits of no dispute. It is found 
in tlieir public journals, secular and religious, in the speeches 
of their public men, and is formally set forth and reiterated 
in the State papers of the rebel President and the members 
of his Cabinet, and by the rebel Congress.* From the 
moment of the actual outbreak of hostilities to the present 

* "A sense of oppression and wrona:, on the part of the North, in instituting and 
sustaining this war upon the South, is deep seated and abiding; in their minds, and 
they will shiink from no sacrifices and turn away from no dangers in resisting it:' 
—Presbytery of Western District, Tennessee, July, 1861, Eev. Dr. Thomas Smyth, 
of Charleston, S. (X, when speaking of " the defensive character of the war of the 
South," says : " That war, as we have already proved, was provoked, threntened, per- 
fidiously commenced, and openly proclaimed by the ^ovi\ir— Southern Presbyterian 
Review, April, 1S63. In an " Address of (the Rebel) Congress to the People of the 
Confederate States.'' issued in February, 1864, It is said: "That a people, professing 
to be animated by Christian sentiment, and who had regarded our peculiar institution 
as a blot and blur upon the fair escutcheon of their common Christianity, should 
make loar zipon the South for doing what they had a perfect right to do, * * * 
was deemed almost beyond belief by many of our wisest minds. * * * These 
reasonable anticipations were doomed to disappointment. The red glare of battle 
kindled at Sumter, dissipated all hopes of peace, and the two Governments were ar- 
rayed in hostility against each other. We charge the responsibility of this war 
upon the United States. They are accountable for the blood and havoc and ruin it 
has caused. * * * The war in which we are engaged was wickedly, and against 
all our protests and most earnest efforts to the contrary, forced upon ws." The rebel 
Piesident, Jefferson Davis, in one of liis messages to Congress, referred to in the 
above-mentioned Address, says: "Our efforts to avoid the war, forced on us as it 
was by the lust of conquest and the insane passions of our foes, are known to man- 
kind." 



JOHN M. BOTTS ON SECESSION. 107 

hour, they have persistently declared that the General 
Governraent, sustained by the body of the Northern peo- 
ple, are alone responsible for liaving begim^ and for having 
continued^ the war. 

They insist that secession was a peaceful remedy for 
their wrongs, against which war could not justly be made ; 
and they declare, that, ever since war began, they have 
been ready to make peace, but that the General Govern- 
ment would not have jieace. 

These are grave issues, lying at the root of the contro- 
versy in which the two sections of the country are involved. 
We cannot here canvass the alleged right of secession, 
which is claimed to be a Constitutional remedy for the 
grievances complained of. Our object, at present, is dif- 
ferent. Whether secession, under the Constitution, be a 
justifiable remedy for any invasion of right or not, it is 
only necessary, in reference to the immediate object now 
in hand, to show, that the kind of secession which the 
South undertook, was early begun, and was vigorously 
prosecuted, by acts which can have no other terms of de- 
scription than those which belong to the vocabulary of war. 
To assume that such acts are authorized under the Con- 
stitution, that they are what it contemplated as proper to 
be done in carrying out secession, that these are acts of 
peace, and that therefore secession is a peaceful remedy 
for supposed wrongs, are propositions so monstrous, that 
no one can be deceived by them the moment the acts in 
question come to be examined in their nature and the time 
of their occurrence. 

JOHN M. BOTTS ON SECESSION. 

As introductory to a brief narration of early events, well 

remembered by the whole world, we refer to a letter of 

the Hon. John Minor Botts, of Virginia, dated Richmond, 
6 



108 RESPONSIBILITY FOE THE WAE. 

January 24, 1861, written in answer to a request made to 
him to become a candidate for the Convention, which 
passed the Ordinance of Secession for Virginia. It is well 
known, that so eager were the Southern rebels for a dis- 
ruption of the Union, that they rejoiced over the election 
of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, with exceeding great 
joy, as furnishing the justifiable ground for the step. Re- 
ferring to this, Mr. Botts says : 

I am not willing to sacrifice the best interests of my State and my 
country, and the hopes of oppressed mankind throughout the world, in 
upholding South Carohna in a bad cause ; in a wholly unjustifiable and 
petulant whim, which she avows she has indulged for thirty years. I 
am not willing to rush upon destruction, for a misplaced sympathy for a 
State that exulted over the election of a Republican President, burned 
their tar barrels and illuminated their cities, because it afforded them 
the pretext for rebellion, and that has violently seized upon the forts, 
arsenals, arms, and ammunition, and money of the United States, and 
has fired upon, and driven from her waters, an unarmed vessel bearing 
that flag of the Union which has borne us triumphantly through every 
war and every trouble. 

NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 

These words of Mr. Botts, suggest the events of the fall 
and winter of 1860-61, which fix indelibly upon the South 
the responsibility of having begun the war^ in repeated and 
long continued acts of war. The work of revolt began 
immediately after the election, and in the midst of the 
rejoicing at the result of it. State after State, by formal 
acts, openly repudiated the authority of the United States, 
and " seceded." The people of these States, in various 
localities, sustained by the public authorities, forcibly seized, 
as Mr. Botts declares, the public property of the nation. 
The forts, ships, mints, custom-houses, public money, arms, 
arsenals, ammunition, and other public property, were 
taken. All these, confessedly, belonged, not to the re- 



NARRATIVE OF EVENTS. 109 

spective States, but to the United States. They Avcre 
built, manuilictured, or purchased, as the property and by 
the money and authority of the United States. The title 
was not questioned by any one. Many of these things 
were taken by force. The guards of mints and custom 
houses were eluded or overborne ; and the forts and ships, 
in some of the former of which were garrisons, and in the 
latter armed officers, were seized by bodies of armed men 
in superior numbers, and the United States forces Avere 
compelled to surrender. These were not the acts of mere 
mob violence. They will take in history, as they have in 
the eye of public law, a different character. These tcere 
ACTS OF WAR ; the early nieasui^s of an open revolution. 
They were directly authorized by organized States, which 
claimed to have thrown off the nationnl authority. They 
were taken that they might resist by force any attempt on 
the part of the United States to repossess them, and to 
re-establish the authority which had been subverted. These 
acts were, therefore, severally, acts of 'war^ so far as such 
acts can be, before war has been formally declared by com- 
petent authority, or in a revolution before there has been 
any forcible step taken to resist it. It is po.^sible, that 
techniGally these acts may not be acts of war, for there 
was, as yet, no legal power to declare it; but practically 
such was, to all intents and purposes, their character.* 

* Soon after the secession of South Carolina and the seizure of the Forts in the 
harbor of Charleston, and the lilie seizure of the Forts withiti the limits of Georgia 
and Alabama by those States, the sluggishness of Florida \s'as thus chided by the 
CharleHtan Mercury : "To our friends in Florida we would respectfully pass a 
word. There are two powerful strongholds and most important points of military 
oflfence and defence in Florida — Pensacola and Key West. The States both of 
Georgia and Alabama have wisely taken time by the forelock, and put themselves 
in possession of such fortresses as lie within their borders." "In this view, it is im- 
portant for the people of Florida to reflect that there are perhaps no fortresses alon? 
our whole Southern coast more important than those of Florida. These Forts can 
command the whole Gulf trade. And should Mr. Buchanan carry out what appears 
to be his present plan, he certainly must desire to hold possession of those Forts." 



110 EESPONSIBILITY FOE THE WAR. 



REBEL GOVERNMENT FORMED THE SOUTH ARMING. 

In the mean time, and before all these acts had been con- 
summated, the several States which had " seceded," formed 
what they termed a Provisional Go\'ernment, called the 
"Confederate States of America," in opposition to the 
Government of the United States, and soon afterwards 
adopted a Constitution, elected officers, and invested this 
Government with a permanent character and authority. 
This Government called out, as some of the seceded States 
had previously done, thousands of troops, armed and 
equipped them with the munitions taken from the United 
States arsenals, placing some of them in the forts and ships 
they had seized, the garrisons and crews of the national 
Government having already surrendered to them. 

OUR GOVERNMENT INACTIVE. 

During this time, and while all these things were pub- 
licly occurring, and the public journals of the country 
were publishing the details, the General Government took 

" But let Florida hold these Forts, and the entire aspect of aflPairs is changed." " The 
commerce, of the, North in the Gulf vnll fall an easy prey to our bold privateers ; 
and California, gold will pay all such little eivpe7ise.s on our party In enumer- 
atinsr these and other seizures, in a Report made to the House of Representatives 
Boon after, the Hon. John A. Dix, Secretary of the Treasury, says : " Third.— Tho 
seizure by Louisiana of all United States moneys, as well as tho,se of private deposi- 
tors in the mint and sub-treasury at New Orleans and other places. Fourth.— 
The seizure of revenue cutters, by arrangement between their ci^mmanders and the 
collectors of Mobile, New Orleans, and Charleston. Fifth.— The expulsion of the 
sick and invalid patients at the United States hospital at New Orleans, in order to 
provide accommodation for Louisiana troops." On the general subject, in this same 
Report, Mr. Dix says : " Throughout the whote course of encroachment and aggres- 
sion, the Feder.al Government has borne itself with a spirit of paternal forbearance, 
of which there is no example in the history of public society; waiting in patient 
hoi>e that the empire of reason would resume its sway over those whom the excite- 
ment of passion has thus far blinded, and trusting that the friends of good order, 
wearied with submission to proceedings which they disapproved, would, at no dis- 
t;int day, rally under the banner of the Union, and exert themselves with vigor and 
success against the prevailing recklessness and violence." 



SIEGE OF FOKT SFMTER. Ill 

no measures to prevent thetn. If names are things, and if 
things have names descriptive of their character, these 
acts of aggression were acts of loar ; and to whatever we 
may now attribute the non-interference by the General 
Government, under the administration of President Bu- 
chanan, — whether to fear, timidity, imbecility, hope of 
restoring authority and preserving peace by doing noth- 
ing ; or, to direct complicity with treason, — still, the facts 
will go down to history, that while the rebels were spend- 
ing months in these acts of war, and in open preparation 
for war, the Government against which they had rebelled 
did nothing of a warlike character to oppose them. 

SIEGE OF FORT SUMTER. 

During the progress of these events, the rebels, not 
being able easily to seize some of the forts of the United 
States, — as Forts Pickens, Sumter, Moultrie, and others,— 
commenced against them a regular siege. Fort Sumter, in 
the harbor of Charleston, had a garrison of some seventy 
men, under the heroic Major Robert Anderson. Being 
instructed by the GoTernment not to surrender the fort, 
and also instructed not to fire upon the besiegers unless 
fired upon hy thern^^ they were quietly permitted to en- 

* President Buchanan, in his Annual Message to Congress, December 3d, 1860, 
speaking of the "property of the United States in South Carolina," says: " It is not 
believ&d that any attempt will be maflo to expel the United States from this prop- 
erty by force ; but if in this I should prove to be mistaken, the officer in command 
of the forts has receivo-d orders to act strictly on the defensive. In such acontin- 
gency, the responsibility for consequences would rightfully rest upon the heads of 
the assailants." An order given to Major Anderson from the War Department, 
delivered at Fort Moultrie, December 11, 1860, says: "You are carefully to avoid 
every act which would needlessly tend to provoke aggression., and for that reason 
you are not, without necessity, to take up any position which could be construed 
into the assumption of a hostile attitude ; but you are to hold possession of the 
Forts in the harbor, and if attacked, you are to defend yourself to the last extrem- 
ity. The smallness of your force will not permit you, perhaps, to occupy more than 
one of the three Forts, but an attack on or an attempt to take possession of either 
of them, will be regarded as an act of hostility, and you may then put your com- 



112 EESPOlSrSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

circle the fort with powerful siege-works, mounted by the 
heaviest guns belonging to the United States, until the 
reduction of the fort was made morally certain, whenever 
the rebels should choose to open fire. The force which 
was under arms to man and support the batteries erected 
around Fort Sumter, numbered, according to their own 
estimates, from seven to ten thousand men. They were 
armed mostly from the Government arsenals. Major Ander- 
son could at any time have demolished the works in course 
of construction around him, or prevented their construc- 
tion at all ; but he was ordered by the Government to 
stand strictly on the defensive. Whether anybody had 
" blundered," most surely " all the world wondered." 
However humiliating to its loyal citizens such a course was, 
and reproachful to the national honor and power in the 
eyes of other nations, it is yet true that the Government 
made not one solitary effort of a warlike nature to recover 
its property or reassert its jurisdiction. Not a soldier was 
called out by the Government, w^hile the rebels wer-e mus- 
tering and dialling their forces. 

CONGRESS NOT AGGRESSIVE. — STAR OF THE WEST. 

Congress was in session during four months after these 
measures of revolt were initiated, and for several weeks 
after the warlike deeds referred to had well nigh reached 
their climax. Yet, Congress passed no act and took no 
step of a warlike character to meet these aggressions, but 
was, at this very time, maturing measures for peacefully 
setthng, if possible, the difficulties of the country. In one 
instance, while Congress was in session, the Administra- 
tion then in power (Mr. Buchanan's), as was clearly its 

mand into either of them which you may deem most proper to increase its power 
of resistance. You are also authorized to take similar steps whenever you have 
tangible evidence of a desi^'u to proceed to a hostile act." 



CONGEESS NOT AGGRESSIVE. — STAR OP THE WEST. 113 

right and duty, sent the Star of the West, an unarmed 
vessel, with provisions for the garrison in Fort Sumter. 
The men were nearly in a starving condition, cut ojQf from 
their usual supplies from the Charleston markets. The 
Star of the West was fired upon^ and compelled to aban- 
don the enterprise. This was another open act of war, 
committed by the assumed authority of the rebel Govern- 
ment. Yet, the Government of the United States did ijot 
retaliate. N'ot a single shot was fired m return. The 
brave garrison looked on in silence ; no provisions were 
landed ; their stores were nearly exhausted ; they saw the 
flag of their country dishonored and fired upon by traitors ; 
but all was borne, as the Government had so ordered.* 
Nor did Congress take any action, such was the disposi- 
tion towards conciliation. It was during this very period 
that the several successive measures looking to peace, — by 



* At this time, Major Anderson addressed a note to the Governor of South Caro- 
lina, in which he says: "Two of your batteries fired this morning upon an un- 
armed vessel bearing the flag of my Government." " I cannot but think this a 
hostile act, committed without your sanction or authority. Under that hope, I 
refrain from opening a fire on yoar batteries." "I respectfully ask whether the 
above-mentioned act was committed in obedience to your instructions, and notify 
you, if it is not disclaimed, that I regard it as an act of war.'''' This vessel was the 
Star of the We>it. The Governor replies to Major Anderson: "She was fired into. 
This act is perfectly justified by me." Governor Pickens further says: " Your po- 
sition in the harbor has been tolerated hy the, authorities of the State ;" and " the 
act of which you complain is in perfect consistency with the rights and duties of 
the state." Major Anderson rejoins : "I have deemed it proper to refer the whole 
matter to my Government." These notes bear date, January 9, 1861. The Charles- 
ton Courier of January 10, shows the amount of the firing at the vessel: "The 
Star of the West rounded the point, took the ship channel inside the bar, and pro- 
ceeded straight forward until opposite Morris Island, about three-quarters of a mile 
from the battery. A ball was then fired athwart the bows of the steamer. The 
star of the West displayed the stars and stripes. As soon as the flag was unfurled, 
the fortification fired a succession of shots. The vessel continued on her course 
with increased speed; but two shots taking efi'ect upon her, she concluded to retire. 
Fort Moultrie fired a few shots at hei-, but she was out of range. The damage done 
to the Star of the West is trifling, as only two out of seventeen shots took effect 
upon her. Fort Sumter made no demonstration, except at the port-holes, where 
the guns were run out bearing on Morris Island." 



114 EESPOIfSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

the Peace Convention, and the proposed Amendments to 
the Constitution, — v>ere under consideration. This forbear- 
ance, in tiie face of those repeated insuUs to the national 
authority and honor which culminated in firing upon the 
national flag without resentment, was mistaken by the 
rebels for timidity and cowardice. It only served to 
stimulate their determination toward resistance to that 
power which they could so easily defy, and whose measures 
had only inspired their contempt. 

NEW ADMINISTRATION. ATTACK ON FORT SUMTER. 

Weeks passed on. The session of Congress had expired 
by its Constitutional limitation, and the new Administra- 
tion, with Mr. Lincoln as President, came into power on 
the 4th of March, 1861. On the sixth of that month, only 
two days after Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, the "Confede- 
rate" Congress passed an Act authorizing a military force 
to be raised of one hiindred thousand men. 

At length the works for reducing Fort Sumter were 
nearly completed. At this time the garrison had but some 
two or three days' supply of provisions. This was well 
known to the rebel authorities. The Government, as in 
duty bound, determined on a second attempt to send a 
supply ; and, at the same time, as a still further evidence 
of its forbearance and of its disposition to conciliation and 
peace, the Government gave the voluntary assurance to the 
besiegers that no reinforcement of men or munitions would 
be attempted, but that it would only supply the desti- 
tute garrison with provisions, and that no w^arlike demon- 
stration would be made unless this should be interfered 
with. This peaceful determmatio?i of the Governme7it 
was made the occasion of an attack upon the fort, even 
before the provisioning vessels had arrived. Here was 
another, and the climax in a series, of open acts of war^ 



THE UNAVOIDABLE ISSUE. 115 

under express orders from the rebel Government at Mont- 
gomery ; while the General Government, against which 
they were made, had not called out a soldier^ nor fired a 
gun^ nor done one warlike act in opposition to them. As 
an inevitable event, after a gallant resistance of an attack 
of some two days, by a circle of batteries constructed 
without opposition and completely investing the fort, the 
starved garrison of seventy men surrendered to the army 
of seven thousand.* It was then, and not till tlien^ that 
the Government laid aside its forbearance, that the Presi- 
dent MADE THE FIRST CALL EOR TROOPS, tO defend the 

nation's honor and rights, to recover its property, and to 
restore its authority. 

THE UNAVOIDABLE ISSUE. 

The Government of the United States thus forbore as 
long as forbearance was possible, and perhaps much longer 
than was wise ; until, indeed, this inevitable issue was 
presented, — that it must succumb, without resistance, to an 
open, well-organized, armed, and bloody rebellion, against 
its authority, property, honor, and power, and become a 
scoffing and a byword among all the nations of the earth, 
and a prey to their insults and rapacity ; or that it must 
make at least an attempt to recover and maintain its rights 
by the sword, which God had put into the hand of its 
Chief Magistrate for the punisnment of evil-doers and for 
the praise of them that do well. This simple alternative 
was forced uj^on the Government, as the whole world 
plainly saw. 

The foregoing facts are so recent as to be within the mem- 



* The Cliarleston Mercury, of May 3, 1S61, gives the amount of "shot and shell 
expended during the bombardment of Fort Sumter," from fourteen batteries which 
had been specially erected for its reduction, — not including Fort Moultrie,— as "two 
thousand three hundred and sixty-one shot, and nine hundred and eighty shell," 
0* 



116 EESrONSIBlLITY FOB THE WAR. 

ory of tliose wlio liuve paid attention to the current events 
of the early period of the war. And yet, it is with such facts 
before them, that the rebels and their sympathizers persist 
in asserting that " the Government of the United States 
is the aggressor," that " the North began the war," nnd 
that " the South is fighting in self-defence ;" and it is upon 
the issue, thus falsely made, that much eloquence is ex- 
pended in the endeavor to get up sympathy for " our op- 
pressed Southern brethren," and to cast odium upon the 
National Government and upon those who are sustaining 
it in its effort to regain rightful authority over the whole 
domain of the Union. 

The earliest possible date when the United States Gov- 
ernment began, on its part, the war which it is now pro- 
secuting to resist secession, and put down treason and 
rebellion, was April 15, 1861, when President Lincoln, by 
proclamation, called for seventy-five thousand troops. Up 
to that moment^ no vmrlike step for these ends had been taken. 
And even then, by that proclamation, the rebels were allowed 
" twenty days to disperse and retire peacefully to their 
respective abodes." Had they availed themselves of this, 
no act of war upon their persons or property would have 
been committed ; but they laughed this to scorn, and went 
on more vigorously in their warlike measures, which they 
had been steadily prosecuting j^?;e/wZ^ months. 

GENERAL m'cLELLAn's OPINIOlSr. 

General McClellan, in his address at the dedication of 
the Battle Monument at West Point, on the 15th of June, 
1864, mentions the cause of the war, the unjustifiableness 
of the rebellion, and the necessity of maintaining our 
nationality, in the following terms : 

Stripped of all sophistry and side issues, the direct cause of the war, 
as it presented itself to the honest and patriotic citizens of the North, 



SOUTHERN ASSUMPTIOXS. 117 

was simply this : Certain States, or rather, a portion of the inhabitants 
of certain States, feared, or professed to fear, that injury woiUd result to 
their rights and property from the elevation of a particular party to 
power. Although the Constitution and the actual condition of the Gov- 
ernment provided them with a peaceable and sure protection against 
the apprehended evil, they preferred to seek security in the destruction 
of the Government, which could protect them, and in the use of force 
against the national troops holding a national fortress. To efface the 
insult offered our flag ; to save ourselves from the fate of the divided 
Republics of Italy and South America ; to preserve our Government 
from destruction ; to enforce its just power and laws ; to maintain our 
very existence as a nation — these were the causes that compelled us to 
draw the sword. Rebellion against a Government like ours, which 
contains the means of self-adjustment, and a pacific remedy for evils, 
should never be confounded with a revolution against despotic power, 
which refuses a redress of wrongs. Such a rebelhon cannot be justified 
upon ethical grounds, and the only alternative for our choice is its sup- 
pression, or the destruction of our nationality. At such a time as this, 
and in such a struggle, political partisanship should be merged in a 
true and brave patriotism, which thinks only of the good of the whole 
country. 

SOUTHERN ASSUMPTIONS VS. "NORTHERN AGGRESSIONS." 

Taking the ground that the North began the war, the 
leaders of the rebellion have aimed to stimulate their own 
people, and to make out a case before the world, that they 
are fighting in self-defence. 

Says Dr. Smyth, in the article before referred to, in the 
SoiUhern Preshijterian RemeiL\ April, 1863: "By every 
instinct of self-preservation and defence, by the divinely 
authorized as well as inherent natural right of all her citi- 
zens in the Government ordained by them, as ' free,' and 
' using their liberty' (1 Pet. ii.), the South was imperatively 
required to defend life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness, even unto blood, against the arrogant and rapacious 
usurpation of the North." Dr. Smyth refers to "the con- 
clusiveness of the facts adduced, in proof of the aggres^ 



1 1 8 KESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

slon of the North in originating this war^'' as set forth in 
an article of this T^evieir, in 1861, on the "Battle of Fort 
Sumter," which we have not seen. From some incidental 
allusions, however, it is clear that he relies for "proof" 
upon certain " negotiations" attempted by the Southern 
leaders with the Government, in which they were unsuc- 
cessful, and which are known to the country. He takes 
the view of Southern writers generally. 

The argument based upon this feature of the case they 
push with zeal ; but their premises are false, their reason- 
ings illusive, and their conclusions natural. Not being 
able to set aside the warlike character of the acts which 
we have detailed, they set forth that they were trying, 
v>l the same time, to negotiate with the Government a set- 
tlement between the North and South, but that the Gov- 
ernment would not come to any terms, and thus forced 
upon the South the necessity of a war of self-defence in 
behalf of secession. 

DIPLOMATISTS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA. 

We need not go into any long statement of the measures 
on which the rebels rely to show that they were seeking a 
peaceful solution of their troubles by negotiation^ while, as 
we have seen, they were making war in fact. 

Soon after the secession of South Carolina, she sent three 
Commissioners to Washington, Messrs. Barnwell, Adams, 
and Orr, to treat with the General Government. They 
address a communication "To the President of the United 
States." They exhibit their credentials, and declare the 
object of their mission. They do not come to negotiate 
with the Executive about the " secession" of their State. 
That is, with them, a fact accomplished. Deeming the 
Constitution but a 'f compact," and not establishing a 
" Government" proper, but merely forming a " league" 



DIPLOMATISTS FEOM SOUTH CAEOTJNA. 119 

between several " nations," any one of them can witlidraw 
at pleasure. The separation, or " secession," is a fact of the 
past. One party has dissolved the " conapact ;" and that 
is the end of the matter. These diplomatists have nothing 
to say on that subject ; the deed is done ; the case is 
closed. They are the accredited representatives of a 
Foreign Power ; they are from the " nation" of South 
Carolina. They state to President Buchanan : 

We are authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of 
the United States for the dehvery of the forts, magazines, hght-houses, 
and other real estate, with their appurtenances in the Umits of South 
Carohna; and also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a 
division of all other property held by the Government of the United 
States, as agent of the Confederated States, of which South Carolina was 
recently a 7nember, and generally to negotiate as to all other measures 
and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing rela- 
tions of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between 
this Commonwealth and the Government at Washington. 

They also furnish the President " with an official copy 
of the Ordinance of Secession," and intimate that they 
" were ready to negotiate" with him " upon all such ques- 
tions as are necessarily raised by the adoption of this ordi- 
nance ;" and they had hoped all things would go on well. 

But the scene suddenly changes. " The events of 
the last twenty-four hours," say they, " render such an 
assurance impossible." What is the matter? Why, they 
hear that Major Anderson has " changed his base," and 
"retired" from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter. They 
complain bitterly ; tell the President : " We came here the 
representatives of an authority which could, at any time 
within the past sixty days, have taken possession of the 
Forts in Charleston harbor ;" but the game has flown. 
" Until these circumstances are explained," they say to the 
President, " we are forced to suspend all discussion as to 



120 EESPONSIBILITY FOK THE WAR. 

any arrangement by which our mutual interests may be 
amicably adjusted." 

And then, "in conclusion,"— for all documents must 
have an end, — they " urge upon" the President " the im- 
mediate withdrawal of the troops from the harbor of 
Charleston. Under present circumstances, they are a 
stauding menace which renders negotiation impossible, 
and, as our recent experience shows, threatens speedily to 
bring to a bloody issue questions which ought to be settled 
with temperance and judgment." 

The President makes a long reply ; the Commissioners 
of the Palmetto " nation" put in a long rejoinder ; and 
upon the latter the following indorsement is made : " This 
paper, just presented to the President, is of such a char- 
acter that he declines to receive it." The inference is, that 
the President deemed the rejoinder insulting ; and thus 
ends the first attempt at negotiation, and the last made by 
the South Carolina patriots. 

Without going into an analysis of this correspondence, 
it is clear that the turning point of the case, and which 
occasioned the breaking down of the negotiation, was the 
change of the garrison under Major Anderson from Fort 
Moultrie to Fort Sumter. What would have happened, 
had not that occurred, no one can tell ; but what did 
happen was occasioned by that movement. 

THEIR DEMAND INSOLENT. 

And now, what is here plainly involved ? South Caro- 
lina claims to have " seceded," to be " out of the Union," 
to be a " sovereign and independent nation," self-created, 
"born in a day ;" to have sprung like Minerva from the 
head of Jove, " armed in all the panoply of wisdom." For 
the argument's sake, grant it all. By her IMinisters Pleni- 
potentiary she complains that the soldiers of anotlier nation 



TILEIR DEMAND INSOLENT. 121 

are removed from one fort to another, both of which are 
confessedly its own. Had not the United States Govern- 
ment a right to order this change, without asking permis- 
sion, or giving a reason to South Carolina, or anybody 
else ? Who shall doubt it ? If it had not, then the 
United States is not itself an independent nation. If it 
had, who shall complain, if the Government choose to give 
the order ? Or, if Major Anderson took the initiative, and 
the Government thought fit to sustain him, the authority 
for the change was the same. If it be said that the United 
States is not a nation, but only an " agent of the Confed- 
erated States," as the Commissioners phrase it, the case is 
not altered ; for, unquestionably, this is one of the very 
functions with which the " agent" is intrusted. The Gov- 
ernment has supreme command of the army and navy, of 
the national forces and fortresses, of its ships and munitions 
of war. It cannot surrender this agency at the request or 
dictation of wie of this " congeries of nations," without 
any regard to the will of the other thirty- three. 

But the insolence of this newly-born " nation" does not 
stop here. It demands " the immediate withdrawal of the 
troops from the harbor of Charleston," and adds that "they 
are a standing menace which renders neg'otiation impos- 
sible." This is diplomacy on stilts ; which, being inter- 
preted, is this : We have come here on our own business 
to talk with you; evacuate your fortress, that our 
" nation" may take quiet possession, or w^e will not open 
our lips ! And this is the Jinale : Unless this is done, the 
" questions" we have come to discuss will " speedily" be 
brought " to a bloody issue." 

This is Southern statesmanship. This is South Carolina 
" negotiation." This is the diplomatic etiquette of chivalry. 
This, we suppose, is in part, at least, " the correspondence 
since made public," by which Dr. Smyth would make out 



122 RESPONSIBILITY FOK THE WAR. 

the general charge against the Government, that the war 
"was provoked, threatened, pertidiously commenced^ and 
openly proclanned by the North ;" and by which he would 
establish " the defensive character of the war of the South." 

WHAT PRESIDENT BUCHANAN INTENDED. 

But before we admit this aspect of the issue which Dr. 
Smyth presents, let us look a little more closely at this 
diplomacy.^ Dates here are important. The letter of the 
Palmetto Commissioners to President Buchanan, bears date, 
"Washington, Dec. 29, 1860." The President's reply 
was written the next day. He states that on hearing that 
Major Anderson had gone to Fort Sumter : 

My first promptings were to command him to return to his former 
position; * * * hut before any step OMld 2wssibly have been taken in 
this direction, we received information that tiie " Pahnetto flag floated out 
to the breeze at Castle Pinckney, and a large military force luent over last 
night {the 21th) to Fort Moultrie.''^ Thus the authorities of Soutli Caro- 
lina, without waiting or asking for any explanations, and doubtless be- 
lieving, as you have expressed it, that the officer had acted not only 
without but against my orders, on the very next day after the night 
when the removal was made, seized, by a military force, tivo of the Fed- 
eral Forts in the harbor of Charleston, and have covered them under their 
own flag instead of that of the United States. * * * On the very 
day, the 2Tth inst., that possession of these two Forts was taken, the 
Pahnetto flag ivas raised over the Federal CuMom-House and Post- Office 
in Charleston. * * * In the harbor of Charleston we now find 
three Forts confronting each other, over all of which the Federal flag 
floated only four days ago ; but now, over two of them, this flag has 
been supplanted, and the Palmetto flag has been substituted in its 
stead. It "=^ under all these circumstaxces that I am urged imme- 
diately TO WITHDRAW THE TROOPS FROM THE HARBOR OF CHARLESTON, 
AND AM INFORMED THAT WITHOUT THIS, NEGOTIATION IS IMPOSSIBLE, 

This I cannot do — this I will not do. * * * At this point of 
writing, I have received information by telegraph from Captain Humph.- 
reys, in command of the arsenal at Charleston, that " it has to-day [Sunday, 
the ^Oth) been taken by force of arms.^^ It is estimated that the munitions 
of war belonging to this arsenal are worth half a milHon of dollars. 



HYPOCRISY OF THEIK PEACEFUL PRETENSIONS. 123 



HYPOCRISY OF THEIR PEACEFUL PRETENSIONS. 

IsTow we have the true altitude of the diplomatic seat 
taken by the South Carolina envoys. Writing to the 
President on the 29th of December, they of course knew, 
as the w^hole community did, by telegraph, the occurrences 
of the 27th, at Charleston ; and by private telegrams to 
themselves, undoubtedly, they knew a great deal more. 
They knew that Forts Moultrie and Pinckney, and the Cus- 
tom-House and Post-Office, had all been " seized," by the 
employment of a " large military force" as far as neces- 
sary, and that the Stars and Stripes had been pulled down 
and the Rattlesnake flag run up, and the latter now floated 
over each of those structures owned by the United States ; 
and they no doubt knew what was to happen the next day, 
when the arsenal would be " taken by force of arms," and 
the reptile banner cover that too. 

Thus forewarned and forearmed, they propose to " nego- 
tiate" on behalf of the Palmetto " nation" which at home 
has adopted these little customary preliminaries to peace- 
ful diplomacy, provided alicays the President w^ill now on 
his part add to them one little item more which they deem 
indispensable ; that is, cause " the immediate vyithdravml 
of the troops'"^ from the only remaining Fort in the harbor. 
" Negotiation" is absolutely " impossible" without this ; 
and, unless this is done,' — and here is the grand and ami- 
cable outcome, — *' a bloody issue" will "speedily" result! 

The ridiculous figure cut by these Falstafiian gentlemen 
and one of the " Great Powers" which they represent, as 
the world beholds it, ought to be in itself a sufiicient cas- 
tigation for their insolence ; but when we see the studied 
and persistent attempt to substantiate the charge, in the 
face of such facts, that the Government sustained by the 
Korth was the aggressor, and the South was acting purely 



124 RESrONSIBILITT FOE THE WAK. 

on the " defensive," the whining hypocrisy of such pre- 
tensions deserves the scorn of all honest men. 

IRRErEAGABLE POSITION OF THE PRESIDENT. 

Passing by the " ground and lofty tumbling" of the 
South Carolina envoys in the role of diplomats, the Presi- 
dent presented an argument in his communication to them 
which was conclusive of the whole case. They had come 
as the representatives of a Foreign Power, to " negotiate." 
He told them he had no authority to meet them in that 
character, and he could only treat them and their mission 
accordingly. He refers them to his Annual Message to 
Congress, presented a short time before, at the beginning 
of the session, in Avhich he says : 

Apart from the execution of the laws, so far as this may be practica- 
ble, the Executive has no authority to decide what shall be the relations 
between the Federal Government and South Carolina. He has been 
invested with no such discretion. He possesses no power to change the 
relations hitherto existing between them, much less to acknowledge the 
independence of the State. This would be to invest a mere Executive 
officer with the power of recognizing the dissolution of the Confederacy 
among our thirty-three sovereig-n States. 

The Southern leaders, in Church and State, rest the 
strength of their case, in attempting to show their peaceful 
and the North's warlike disposition, upon the fact that the 
Government would not " negotiate ;" that is, would not at 
once acknowledge their " secession," and recognize their 
independence of the United States. This was all they 
wanted. They "seceded," and only asked to be ^'let 
alone." They sent Commissioners from South Carolina, 
the leader in secession, to " negotiate" a partition of the 
public property of the Union. As above related, we have 
seen how this mission failed, and the immediate occasion 
of the failure. 



FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 125 

Passing these incidents by, and coming to the root of 
the matter, what the South sought, in the way they sought 
it, could not be granted ; for the President truly says he 
had been invested with no such authority. Nor had Con- 
gress. The Constitution gives no such power eitlier to the 
Executive or Legislative branch of the Government ; nor 
to both combined. The position of President Buchanan 
was therefore conclusive of the whole matter, as between 
the South Carolina Commissioners and the Government of 
the United States to w^hich they were accredited. 

There was but 07%e conceivable way to reach the end 
sought by the secessionists, if they meant 7?6ace. Any 
other course than that one, was rebellion, revolution, and 
war. We shall speak of that one way, after noticing fur- 
ther negotiations which were attempted. All we need to 
say just here is, that the Southern leaders never took one 
step toward the 07ily possible loay for a peaceful solution 
of the question of separation. 

FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS CONFEDERATE COMMISSIONERS. 

After seven States had seceded, the " Government of the 
Confederate States of America," as they styled it, was 
formed at Montgomery, Alabama. 

After the inauguration of President Lincoln, that Gov- 
ernment sent Commissioners to Washington. They were 
Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. They arrive, and under 
date of " Washington City, March 12, 1861," they address 
a letter to Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, in which 
they say : " The undersigned have been duly accredited 
by the Government of the Confederate States of America, 
as Commissioners to the Government of the United 
States ;" and through the Secretary, they " make known to 
the President of the United States, the objects of their 
presence in this Capital." They proceed to state, that 



126 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

" seven States of the late Federal Union" Lave " with- 
draicn from the United States," and " have formed a Gov- 
ernment of their own ;" and they declare, that " the Con- 
federate States constitnte an independent nation, de facto 
and de jure^ and possess a Government perfect in all its 
parts, and endowed with the means of self-support." 

After giving this official information, they announce the 
great object of their mission thus : 

With a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions growing out op 
this political sejmraiion, upon such terms of amity and good-will as the 
respective interests, geographical contiguity, and future welfare of the 
two nations may render necessary, the undersigned are instructed to 
make to the Government of the United States, overtures for the open- 
ing of negotiations, assuring the Government of the United States that 
the President, Congress, and people of the Confederate States, earnestly 
desire a peaceful solution of these great questions. 

It can scarcely be sup]iosed, for a moment, that these 
Commissioners, or the " Government" they represented, 
expected " negotiations" to be opened with them by the 
Government of the United States, based upon any acknow- 
ledgment, open or tacit, of the political status wliich they 
assumed to exist. After the failure to negotiate with Mr. 
Buchanan, on the ground which he announced to the 
Sonth Carolina Commissioners, — that he had no authority 
in the case, — Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford could not 
have anticipated a different result with the Administration 
of President Lincoln, unless, possibly, they supposed the 
Government might be frightened into a recognition of their 
de facto and de jure " nation," by reason of the more 
formidable proportions which the rebellion had now as- 
sumed. But if such was their expectation, they soon 
learned their mistake. 

Mr. Seward took respectful notice of their letter, in a 
" Memorandum" he penned and sent to them, though not 



FURTHER NEGOTIATIONS. 127 

signed officially or in any other way, but dated at the 
"Department of State," March 15, 1861. He declines 
their request for an official interview, saying it is, " upon 
exclusively public consideration, respectfully declined." 
He states that "he understands the events which have 
recently occurred, and the condition of political affiiirs," 
&c., " very differently from the aspect in which they are 
presented by Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford. He sees in 
them, not a rightful and accomplished revolution and an 
independent nation, with an established Government, but 
rather a perversion of a temporary and partisan excitement 
to the inconsiderate purposes of an unjustifiable anduncon- 
"stitutional aggression upon the rights and authority vested 
in the Federal Government." The Secretary then says to 
those gentlemen that " he looks patiently but confidently 
for the cure" of existing evils, " not to irregular negotia- 
tions," prosecuted " in derogation of the Constitution and 
laws, but to regular and considerate action of the people 
of those States, in co-operation with their brethren in the 
other States, through the Congress of the United States, 
and such extraordinary Conventions, if there shall be need 
thereof, as the Federal Constitution contemplates and 
authorizes to be assembled." He then refers them to 
President Lincoln's Inaugural Address, from which they 
would perceive that he could not admit the political status 
they assumed, — " that the States referred to by them have, 
in law or in fact, withdrawn from the Federal Union," — 
" or that they could do so in the manner described by 
Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, or in any other manner 
than with the consent and concert of the people of the Uni- 
ted States^ to he given through a National Convention^ to 
be assembled in conformity with the provisions of the Con- 
stitution of the United States." He closes his "j\Iemo- 
randum" by saying that the President " coincides gener- 



123 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

ally in the views it expresses, and sanctions the Secretary's 
decision declining official intercourse with Messrs. Forsyth 
and Crawford." 

PEACEFUL SOLUTION DECLINED. 

The case was thus a plain one, as between war and 
peace. There was one course open for peaceful negotia- 
tions recognized by the Constitution. To that, the Goy- 
ernment of the United States was shut up / but into that, 
though invited, the secessionists icould not enter. If a 
possibility existed oi 2i, peaceful separation, through " nego- 
tiation," it was in the way the Secretary of State men- 
tioned, and which the President in his Inaugural Addfess 
suggested, — through a National Convention of the people 
of all the States, — and there teas no other way under the 
Constitution. 

It is true, that the Constitution does not contemplate 
the disruption of the Union in any manner ; does not pro- 
vide for even coivslderlng the question of separation, or 
" secession ;" it says nothing about it ; and it may be that 
a National Convention, held under the provisions of the 
Constitution, would have no authority to entertain the 
question in any shape. It has been insisted, however, 
that, as the people in a National Convention made the 
Constitution, and the people of the several States ratified 
it, the people of the United States and of the several 
States have the power, through the same process, to 
undo the work of their hands, to take down the edifice 
they erected, and to dissolve the Union. If this be so, 
it is 2i peaceful mode of separation. But whether there be 
any Constitutional mode of separation or not, — and if 
there be, this seems to be the only one inferrible from 
the instrument itself,— 2'/i/s icas the course to which the Ad- 
ministration in power was willing to resort, for the con- 



PEACEFUL SOLUTION DECLINED. 129 

sideration of all grievances between the Government and 
the complaining States ; and it was a measure of peace. 
But the Southern leaders never took one step^ or erpressed 
any desire^ for a National Convention, but always spurned 
every suggestion of the subject. 

Nor did they propose any other measure for a peaceful 
solution of the vital issue between them and the Govern- 
ment; that issue which was regarded as underlying all 
other questions in debate. But they took the ground, 
openly and defiantly, that they were " out of the Union" 
by their own act ; that they were separated already from 
the jurisdiction of the United States ; that they had 
" seceded," and that was the end of controversy. Suppose 
they were in fact right, — that " secession" was their 
proper remedy, — but yet that they could not convbice the 
opposite party, the Government of the United States, of 
the truth of their position. There were then two parties 
to the case. The Government did not and could not agree 
with them. How, then, do honest men, disposed to p)eaee^ 
act, when they cannot agree ? Before resorting to extreme 
measures, they exhaust every possible efibrt for a peaceful 
settlement. Did the South do this ? Who could be an 
umpire, for a peaceful solution, between them and the 
Government ? Only the whole people, represented in a 
National Convention. Did they agree to this? They 
spmrned it. Did they propose any other measure? JSTone 
whatever. Nothing short of a direct, full, immediate, un- 
conditional yielding to them of the whole case in con- 
troversy^ as one of the parties, would satisfy them. Does 
this carry on its front the compelling conviction that they 
were for peace^ and the Government was for vmr f 

Were this simple question submitted to any disinterested 
body of twelve men, in any nation under heaven, they 
AVould give a verdict against the rebel pretension. 



130 RESPONSIBILITY FOE THE WAR. 

UNJUSTIFIABLE REASONS FOR REFUSAL. 

It may possibly be said, in answer to tliis, that the as- 
semblincr of a National Convention would have been 
useless ; tliat the majority of the people were no doubt 
ao-ainst " secession," and with the Government, and there- 
fore the South would not have obtained " their rights" in 
that manner. 

To this we reply, ^^rs^, that such an opinion could not jus- 
tify a refusal to make the trial. Those Avho, if any, enter- 
tained it, might have found themselves mistaken. Our own 
conviction is, that had the wliole people, represented in a 
National Convention, been brought face to face with the 
alternative of some peaceful settlement or civil war, one of 
two things would have occurred : either, propositions of 
" compromise" Avould have been agreed upon, satisfoctory 
to the vast majority of the South, — which the Southern 
leaders no doubt feared, — or, a proposition for an amicable 
separation would have passed. We do not say that a 
" compromise," if subsequently ratified, would have been 
well. It would only have postponed the evil day. Nor 
do we say it would have been wise to dissolve this one 
nation and make two. It might have saved us the present 
strife, and its untold horrors, but numerous and bitter 
wars would no doubt have followed. All we mean to say, 
is, that we believe the people, compelled to face this 
" ru(:^ged issue," would have chosen the peaceful side of 
tlie alternative, in one of these two modes. 

But, secondly^ even if the Southern people had failed in 
Convention, either to gain a satisfictory "compromise" 
or an acquiescence in their " secession," and had thereupon 
felt compelled to withdraw from the Convention and enact 
and carry out "secession" in the way they are now doing, 
they would, in that case, — if able to exhibit a clear record 



THE COMMISSIONERS DEFIANTLY COURT WAR. 181 

of unendurable wrongs, — have made a far better showing, 
and would have had a deeper sympathy from the civilized 
world, than is now possible ; and more especially so, in 
the matter of showing a disposition for peace. 

But as the facts now stand, it is the baldest of all pos- 
sible pretensions, the most naked and monstrous proposi- 
tion ever penned by sober and Christian men, to assert that 
they were all the while for peace^ while the Government 
was all the while for loar. The Government was driven 
into war, to save its authority, to recover its property, to 
maintain its honor, to preserve its existence ; and the Ad- 
ministration, constitutionally put in power by the people, 
could do no less, under its oaths of office, than to guard 
and defend these interests to the last. But the conspira- 
tors against the Government could not be coaxed ox goaded 
into any measure for peace; but to be "let alone," after 
they had stolen all they could grasp, and would subvert 
forever the authority of the Government throughout half 
the territory of its jurisdiction, was the least of their 
modest demands. 

THE COMMISSIONERS DEFIANTLY COURT WAR. 

If any further evidence be desired to show the deter- 
mination of the South for war, we find it officially certified, 
by the Confederate Commissioners. In reply to Mr. 
Seward's "Memorandum" of March 15th, 1861, they ad- 
dress him a long and their final note, dated April 9th. 
They assert that the people of seven States " have rejected 
the authority of the United States and established a Gov- 
ernment of their own." Mr. Seward had referred them to 
a National Convention as the only Constitutional method 
for negotiation. Notwithstanding this, they complain, 
that, while they had come " with the olive-branch of 
peace," the Government, — which the Secretary of State 
7 



132 EESPONSIBTLITY FOR THE WAK. 

had assured them had no authority in the premises, — 
would not treat with them, nor " recognize the great 
fact of a coifuplete and successful revolution.^"* 

To show whether the leaves of this " olive-branch" were 
fresh or withered, observe what they further say : 

The undersigned would omit the performance of an obvious duty, 
were they to fail to make known to the Government of the United 
States, that the people of the Confederate States have declared their 
independence luWi a full kiwwledge of all the responsibilities of that act, and 
with as firm a determination to maintain it by all the means with 
which nature has endowed them, as that which sustained their fathers 
when they threw off the authority of the British crown, * * * The 
President of the United States knows that Fort Sumter cannot be pro- 
visioned without the effusion of blood. 

That is, if the United States shall deign to send provi- 
sions to its starving garrison, tliey will, if possible, prevent 
it by force. This is the kind of "peace" in tlie interest 
of which these gentlemen present the " olive-branch," and 
for which they stand ready to " negotiate" if the President 
will but receive them. 

A DIPLOMATIC QUIBBLE. 

There is one feature of this diplomatic note which 
exhibits true Southern chivalry. The Commissioners say 
to the Secretary of State, that they understand him to 
decline any interview : 

Because, to do so, would be to recognize the independence and 
separate nationality of the Confederate States. This is the vein of 
thought that pervades the memorandum before us. The truth of his- 
tory requires that it should distinctly appear upon the record, that the 
undersigned did not ash the Government of the United States to re- 
cognize the independence of the Confederate States. They only asked 
audience to adjust, in a spirit of amity and peace, the new relations 
springing from a manifest and accomplished revolution in the Government 
of the LATE Federal Union. 



A DIPLOMATIC QUIBBLE. 133 

How humiliating it is to see the Plenipotentiaries of a 
"first-class Power" resort to such miserable quibbling. 
In their first note, they declare at the opening, that they 
"have been duly accredited by the Government of the 
Confederate States," and they ask at the close, a day to 
be appointed, "in order that they may present to the 
President of the United States the credenticds which they 
bear, and the objects of the mission with which they are 
charged." In their second and final note, they say to 
Secretary Seward, at its oj^ening: " You correctly state 
the purport of the officicd note addressed to you by the 
undersigned on the 12th ult." They close this note by 
saying : " The undersigned. Commissioners of the Con. 
federate States of America^ having thus made answer 
to all they deem material in the memorandum filed in 
the Department on the 15th of March last, have the 
honor to be," &c. And throughout the body of both 
notes they assert the nationality of the " Confederate 
States" they represent, both de facto and de jure^ and 
formally declare the grounds on which they assert 
such claim. And yet, in the face of all this, they declare 
that they " did not ask the Government of the United 
States to recognize the independence of the Confederate 
States." 

What a paltry piece of finesse for " chivalric" gentle- 
men! Suppose they " did not ask" this, in terms^ did not 
the whole proceeding on their part imply that such was 
their demand ? And had the United States Government 
held any intercourse with them, without an express dis- 
claimer, would it not have been pleaded as a virtual re- 
cognition? This is on a par with their pretension that 
they bear " the olive-branch 6i peace^'''' while they threaten 
the Government with an " effiision of bloody It is like 
every thing else connected with " secession" from first to 



134 RESPONSIBILITY FOE THE WAE. 

last, — a lie and a cheat ; mendacity and hypocrisy, diplo- 
matically combined. 

It is further noticeable here, that these Commissioners 
had got beyond the " secession" stage of the fever, which 
is always claimed to be a peaceful type of this Southern 
malady. They speak of "seven States" having effected 
"a complete and successful revolutio7i f and of an "ac- 
complished revolutions'^ &c. They use these terms, not 
with reference to any aspect of the case occasioned by 
their failure to negotiate with the Government, nor in 
consequence of the hostile attitude which they charge the 
Government with having taken ; but they claim this as the 
status of the seceded States from the first. " Secession," 
then, when defined by themselves, is " revolution ;" and 
this revolution, like most others, was begim and has been 
carried on till now by acts of war. "Revolution," says 
a distinguished writer, " always implies rebellion, and re- 
bellion is war." 

PUBLIC FACTS DECIDE THE CASE. 

But take any view of the case which the facts disclose ; 
trace the history of the movement from the first demon- 
strations immediately after the Presidential election, 
November 6th, 1860, to the attack upon Fort Sumter, 
April 12th, 1861 ; call to mind the seizures of every de- 
scription of the property of the United States, made at 
every stage between these dates, within rebel reach, upon 
land and water ; note the pulling down of the United 
States flag from every place where it floated, on Custom- 
Houses, Post-Ofiices, Arsenals, Mints, Forts, and Vessels 
of War, and the unfurling upon them instead, the flags of 
the respective States where this public property was 
located, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, and from 
the Missouri to Cape Sable ; estimate the thousands of 



REBEL CONDITIONS OF PEACE. 136 

troops called out, mustered, organized, drilled, and equip- 
ped with all the munitions of war, in every State which 
seceded; observe the formation of the Confederate States 
Government, and the adoption of a Constitution other 
than that of the United States, and the establishment of 
the offices and the exercise of all the functions of- an inde- 
pendent nationality ; bear in mind that the seizures of this 
United States property and the organizing of these armies, 
first undertaken by the separate States, and afterwards 
sanctioned and adopted by the Government ^of the Con- 
federate States, was for the purpose of maintaining the 
independent authority which this new Government had 
assumed ; and then, having pondered the case well, let 
any honest man ask himself if all this means peace f — or, 
if this be not revolution^ and these the movements which 
were undertaken to maintain and defend this revolution, 
by all the appliances of war f 

That is one side. The other is equally clear, and more 
briefly told. The first act of war undertaken by the Gov- 
ernment of the United States was on the 15 th of April, 
1861, in the calling out of the first body of troops; and 
that was done simply to repel the open assaults of its 
enemies, to recover its stolen property, and to maintain 
its rightful authority; with, even then, "twenty days" 
given, which might have prevented collision. No Gov- 
ernment on earth, called as an umpire, could give any 
other judgment between the parties upon the simple ques- 
tion of peace and war. 

REBEL CONDITIONS OF PEACE SINCE THE WAR BEGAN. 

The rebels have talked much of a desire for peace, ever 
since the war has been in progress. To show on what 
terms they would conclude peace, we insert the conditions 



136 RESPONSIBILITT FOR THE WAE. 

given in the Richynond JEnquirer^ of the 1 6th of October 
last. That paper says : 

Save on our own terms we can accept no -peace whatever^ and must 
fight till doomsday rather than yield an iota of them ; and our terms 
are: 1. Recognition by the enemy of the independence of the Con- 
federate States. 2. "Withdrawal of the Yankee forces from every foot 
of Confederate ground, including Kentucky and Missouri. 3. "Withdrawal 
of the Yankee soldiers from Maryland, until that State shaU decide by 
a free vote whether she shaU remain in the old Union or ask admission 
into the Confederacy. 4. Consent on the part of the Federal Govern- 
ment to give up to the Confederacy its proportion of the Navy as it 
stood at the time of Secession, or to pay for the same. 5. Yielding up 
all pretension on the part of the Federal Government to that portion 
of the old Territories which lies "West of the Confederate States. 6. 
An equitable settlement, on the basis of our absolute independence and 
equal rights, of all accounts of the public debt and public lands, and the 
advantages accruing from foreign treaties. * * * These provisions, 
we apprehend, comprise the minimum of what we must require before 
we lay down our arms. That is to say, the north must yield all 
— WE NOTHING. The whole pretension of that country to prevent by 
force the separation of the States must be abandoned, which will be 
equivalent to an avowal that our enemies were ivrong from the first ; 
and, of course, as they waged a causeless and wicked war upon us, 
they ought in strict justice to be required, according to usage in such 
cases, to reimburse to us the whole of our expenses and losses in the course of 
that war. "Whether this last proviso is to be insisted upon or not, cer- 
tain we are that we cannot have any peace at all until we shall be in a 
position not only to demand and exact, but also to enforce and collect 
treasure for our own reimbursement out of the wealthy cities in the 
enemy's country. In other words, unless we can destroy or scatter 
their armies, and break up their Government, xoe can have no peace ; and 
if we can do that, then we ought not only to extort from them our 
own full terms and ample acknowledgment of their wrong, but also a 
handsome indemnity for the trouble and expense caused to us by their 
crime. * * * Once more we say, it is all, or nothing. This 
Confederacy or the Yankee nation, one or the other, goes down, down 
to perdition. That is to say, one or the other must forfeit its national 
existence, and lie at the mercy of its mortal enemy. * * * ^g 
surely as we completely ruin their armies, — and without that, is uo 



THE EEBEL PRESIDENT ON PEACE. 137 

peace or truce at all, — so surely shall we make them pay our war debt 
though we wriug it out of their hearts. 

All lo]/al men will of course cheerfully accept the alter- 
native here presented, that " one or the other" of these 
" nations" " goes down ;" and that there can be peace in no 
other way. It has been our opinion from the beginning, 
that there is no other road to " peace" but to " conquer" 
it ; to crush the military power of the rebellion, which 
means to crush the leaders. They will fight as long as they 
can keep their armies together ; but the time may come 
when thepeojjle, who have been their dupes, will rise up 
and themselves dispose of them. 

These " terms of peace" are instructive to two classes, — 
the truly lo7/al and the " peace" men. These " terms" un- 
doubtedly express the vdews of the rebel leaders. They 
show to the loyal the utter hopelessness of any conditions 
emanating from the South, which can for a moment claim 
serious consideration ; and they thus show the paramount 
duty of every citizen, in sustaining the Government in its 
efforts to crush the rebellion, that peace may be attained. 
They show to that class who are always crying " peace," 
and who are mourning over the grievous burdens of the 
Government, to what a repast of taxation and plunder they 
are invited by their Southern friends. 

THE REBEL PRESIDENT AND REBEL CONGRESS ON PEACE. 

These " terms" also explain what has been meant by the 
rebel President and his Congress when they have spoken 
of " peace," and when they have attempted to make capital 
for foreign consumption out of their complaints against the 
United States Government, that the precious boon could 
not be obtained by them. 

In an '' Address of Congress to the People of the Con- 



138 EESPONSIBILITT FOR THE WAK. 

federate States," issued from Richmond in February last, 
it is said : 

This cruel war has been waged against us, and its continuance has 
been seized upon as a pretext by some discontented persons to excite 
hostility to the Government. Recent and public as have been the occur- 
rences, it is strange that a misapprehension exists as to the conduct of 
the two Governments in reference to peace. Allusion has been made 
to the unsuccessful efforts, when separation took place, to procure an 
amicable adjustment of all matters in dispute. These attempts at nego- 
tiation do not comprise all that has been done. In every form in which 
expression could be given to the sentiments, — in public meetings, through 
the press, by legislative resolves, — the desire of this people for peace, 
for the uninterrupted enjoyment of their rights and prosperity, has been 
made known. 

We know what tbey regard as " their rights," and there- 
fore know what kind of " peace" they have desired and 
manifested in all these modes. They are set forth in the 
" terms" above given. 

Then the Address of this Congress goes on to say that 
President Davis has joined in this pervading " desire," and 
many times expressed it in his State papers : 

The President, more authoritatively, in several of his messages, while 
protesting the utter absence of all desire to interfere with the United 
States, or acquire any of their territory, has avowed that the "advent of 
peace will be hailed with joy. Our desire for it has never been concealed. 
Our efforts to avoid the war, forced on us as it was by the lust of con- 
quest and the insane passions of our foes, are known to mankind." 

And ha\'ingthus spoken of their President, of themselves, 
and their people, they speak of the Government of the 
United States, as follows : 

The course of the Federal Government has proved that it did not de- 
sire peace, and would not consent to it on any terms that we could possibly 
concede. In proof of this, we refer to the repeated rejection of all terms 
of conciliation and compromise ; to their recent contemptuous refusal to 
receive the Yice-President, who was sent to negotiate for softening the 



THEY MISREPRESENT THE CASE. 139 

asperities of the war ; and their scornful rejection of the offer of a neu- 
tral power to mediate between the contending parties. 

THEY MISEEPRESEXT THE CASE. 

If the gentlemen composing the Congress that issued this 
Address, or Mr. Davis in his Message, can seriously believe 
that any person who understands the case will be duped 
by such representations, it is evidence that rebel infatuation 
has gone deeper into their souls than we had supposed. To 
protest, as they do, that there is in them an " utter absence 
of all desire to interfere with the United States, or acquire 
any of their territory^'' and to charge that " the hist of 
conquesf is the motive of the United States in prosecuting 
the war, is to assume the whole matter in dispute. They 
make it a condition precedent to negotiation for "peace," 
or even to negotiation "for softening the asperities of the 
war," that the United States shall give up the vital poi7it 
at issue between the parties. If they will but do that, at 
the outset^ then the door will be ope?i for settling all matters 
of detail. 

The whole question in issue is one involving nationcdity^ 
and hence of territorial jurisdiction. The United States 
claim jurisdiction over the whole country. The Confede- 
rates claim jurisdiction over a part of it. Which claim is 
just, is not now material ; nor is it material, here, which 
party began the war. The parties are at war, to determine 
the claim ; the South fighting for their independence, the 
United States for maintaming their rule intact over the 
whole country. 

These being the facts, the point in hand is, Which party- 
is bent on war, and which is burning with a desire for 
peace ? The " Confederate States" charge the United 
States with a wilful indisposition to peace, and a ferocious 
thirst for war ; and insist, before all the world, that they 



140 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

are anxious for peace, and they only. The solution is simple. 
Our amazement is, that men, in their official acts and man- 
ifestoes, should not admit the truth in so plain a case. That 
the " desire for peace" is mutual, is unquestionable. The 
determination for " war" is also mutual, and the alternative 
on which its prosecution rests is the same with both par- 
ties ; the " Confederate States" determined to prosecute it 
until they gain their independence, and establish their na- 
tionality unmolested over a part of the country, and the 
United States determined to prosecute it until they regain 
their rule over the whole countiy. So far as declarations 
and corresponding acts go, this mutual determination is as 
plain as terms can make any proposition. What the final 
result will be, — which party will carry out its determination 
to the end, and triumphantly, or whether either will, — are 
matters foreign to the present point. 

Now in view of these indisputable facts, it is worse than 
idle for either party to monopolize a^^ the "desire for 
peace," as the case now stands, and to charge the other with 
possessing the sole passion for " war." Both the desire 
and the determination mentioned are nmtual, w^hen we con- 
sider the ends at which the parties are aiming. We are, 
therefore, somewhat surprised that sensible men, — and Mr. 
Davis and his Congress claim to be sensible, — should make 
so lame an attempt, in official documents, to mislead the 
world on so plain a point ; to charge that the United States 
are ferocious, while they are so lamb-like. The United 
States are ready for peace at any moment, on their terms / 
and the rebels are ready for peace on their terms ; and, at 
present, both are determined for war, until their respective 
terms shall be granted. 

This is the 'whole case as it now stands ; and he who 
represents it otherwise, writes himself down a falsifier of 
the plainest public facts. 



THE QUESTION IGNORED BY THE REBELS. 141 



THE REAL QUESTION IGNORED BY THE REBELS. 

While the question of nationality plainly underlies the 
whole contest, and while to settle it the war is prosecuted, 
the rebels constantly attempt to ignore this question. Mr. 
Davis does this in his Message above quoted, when insist- 
ing that the United States are prosecuting a war of " con- 
quest." The rebel Congress do the same in their Address, 
as seen in their illustrations to prove the charge that the 
Federal Government " did not desire peace." They refer, 
as an example, to the " contemptuous refusal to receive the 
Vice-President, who was sent to negotiate for softening 
the asperities of the war." Why was he not received, and 
why is the " refusal" deemed " contemptuous ?" Look at 
the facts. 

Mr. Stephens was in James River, on a " Confederate 
steamer" called the Torpedo, with a " Confederate flag" 
flying. From that vessel, under a flag of truce, he sent a 
letter to an ofiicer of the United States Navy, asking per- 
mission to come up to Washington in his vessel, and deliver 
his credentials, embracing a letter from Jefierson Davis, 
" President of the Confederate States," to Abraham Lin- 
coln, President of the United States, and as a Minister of 
one Government to open negotiations with the other. 
This was in July, 1863. That is to say — He vms there in 
his official character as Ambassador^ upon a national ves- 
sel of the Coyifederate States, hearing official dispatches 
from his Govermnent to that of the United States, to nego- 
tiate upon matters of the highest national concern, namely^ 
of pea.ce and war. This is the rebel view of the case. 

Had he been received, in the manner souglit, it would 
have been equivalent to a concession of all the rebels claimed 
on the simple issue of nationality ; hence, his mission was 
declined. Because it was declined, the rebel Congress 



142 RESPONSIBILITY FOK THE WAR. 

take it in high dudgeon, and pronounce it a "' contemptuous 
refusal." The contempt consisted in not at once virtually 
acknowledging their nationality.* 

Why not fight it out, gentlemen, as the question has 
been referred to the sword ? Or, if tired of that, why seek 
to gain your end by a trick of diplomacy ? If it was sim- 
ply Mr. Stephens whom you wished to intrust with the 
negotiation, — an acknowledged statesman, of high char- 
acter, and a man as likely to be received by the Govern- 
ment as any other prominent rebel leader, — why not send 
him simply as Mr. Stephens ? But, plainly, it was Mr. 
Stephens as " Confederate States" A^nbassador, whom you 
insisted should make his august approach to Washington. 
You would thus, if possible, gain the whole case by diplo- 
macy, which might not be gained by the sword ; and you 
would have the point acknowledged by the United States 
Government at the start, in order that negotiation might 
begin, or else you would pour complaints into the ears of 
all the earth. 

* Mr. Davis's Letter of " Instructions to Mr. Stephens" is dated Richmond, July 2, 
1S63. He gives him also a " Letter of authority to the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army and Navy of the United States," and it is "• signed by me," Mr. Davis says, as 
" Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Land and Naval forces." In the former 
document, Mr. Davis says : " If objection is made lo receiving your Letter on the 
ground that it is not addressed to Abraham Lincoln as President, instead of Com- 
mander-in-Chief, &c., then you will present the duplicate Letter, which is addressed 
to him as President, and signed by me as President. To this Letter, objection may 
be n>ade on the ground that I am not recognized to be President of the Confederacy. 
In this event, you will decline any further attempt to confer on the subject of your 
mission, as such conference Is admissible only on the footing of perfect equality." 
With these documents in his pocket, Mr. Stephens sailed down James River, and 
addressed a note to Rear-Admiral Lee, of the United States Navy, dated, " Confed- 
erate States steamer Torpedo, on James River, July 4, 1S63," in which he says: " I 
desire to proceed directly to W^ashington in the steamer Torpedo, commanded by 
Lieutenant Hunter Davidson, of the Confederate States Navy, no person being on 
board but the Hon. Mr. Ould and myself, and the boat's officers and crew." (Signed) 
" Alexander H. Stephens." These documents show the ground on which the re- 
spective parties were placed by the Richmond authorities, and what was required 
to be conceded by the United States Government, antecedent \o the opening of 
negotiations. 



REBEL OFFICIAL MENDACITY. 143 

When the question had been debated for two whole 
years, with powder and shot and shell, and the discussion 
was still going on in that manner, truly these kind gentle- 
men were very sensitive, if such " contemptuous" conduct 
could disturb them seriously. 

REBEL OFFICIAL MENDACITY. 

But there is something more serious here than this 
rebel charge of contempt. When these sensitive gentle- 
men charo^e that " the Federal Government would not 
consent" to peace "on any terras" that they " could pos- 
sibly concede," and say, "in proof of this we refer to the 
repeated rejection of all terms of conciliation and com- 
promise^ the charge attains a seriousness which claims 
consideration. It is nothing short of the most deliberate 
and direct official mendacity. Do they, in their long and 
labored Address, specify any " terms of compromises^'' to 
which, they say, " we refer ?" None whatever. Were there 
any such "terms" extant to which ihej could "refer?" 
None whatever. Did their authorities ever, in any shape, 
propose ANY "terms of conciliation and compromise?" 
Never, in a single instance. Let him who denies it, show it. 
Much less is the Federal Government guilty of " the repeat- 
ed rejection^'' or even one " rejection" of any such " terms ;" 
for, none such were ever once made. This is well known. 

The whole question, as we have said, respects the claim 
of the Federal Government to the entire territory of the 
Union, and that of the " Confederate Government" to a 
part of it. The Federal Government has never proposed 
to " compromise" that question, and undoubtedly it never 
will. On the other hand, is it pretended that the rebel 
authorities have ever presented, in any way, even indirect- 
ly, " terms" that did not embody their claim to an indo- 
pendent nationality over a portion of the territory claimed 



144 EESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAE. 

by the Federal Government ? No honest man will pretend 
this. What, then, have they proposed to " compromise," 
a rejection of which warrants them in charging that the 
United States "would not consent" to peace ? Nothing 
U7ider heaven. There has been no " compromise" on either 
side offered, touching the question of territorial jurisdic- 
tion, — the radical point at issue, — the only question which 
has broken peace, and the only question which continues 
war. We therefore speak plainly, but truly, when we say 
that this rebel charge is nothing short of an official and de- 
liberate falsification of the truth ; and no persons know it 
better than the rebel Congress who adopted this Address. 
So, also, on another point, these chivalric gentlemen 
show an equal disregard of truth, where the plainest his- 
torical facts confront them. They say in this same Address : 
" Allusion has been made to the unsuccessful efforts, when 
separation took place, to procure an amicable adjustment 
of all matters in disputef and for this result, they hold 
the United States Government responsible. They of course 
allude in the phrase, " when separation took place," to the 
time and the " efforts" of the South Carolina Commission- 
ers who corresponded with President Buchanan, and to 
those of the " Confederate States" Commissioners who cor- 
responded with Secretary Seward, both of which cases we 
have already noticed. But, so far from those Commission- 
ers proposing to negotiate upon " all matters in dispute," 
the matter which one party regarded as the whole question 
at issue, — the right of jurisdiction, in the Federal Govern- 
ment, over the whole territory of the Union, — neither set 
of those Commissioners opened, or would open, at all. 
They did not regard it, in any sense, as an open question, 
but in every sense as a question settled forever by the sole 
action of one of the parties, the authorities they represented. 
When the Secretary of State referred them to a National 



REBEL OFFICIAL MENDACITY. 145 

Convention as the only tribunal for negotiation upon that 
question which the Federal Government regarded as the 
vital one, and as underlying " all matters in dispute," the 
Confederate Commissioners replied in a style which shows 
that diplomacy and negotiation were at an end. They say 
to the Secretary, in their final note : 

Persistently weddea to those fatal theories of construction of the 
Federal Constitution always rejected by the statesmen of the South, and 
adhered to by the Administration school, * * * you now, with a 
persistence untaught and uncured by the ruin which has been wrought, 
refuse to recognize the great fact presented to you of a complete and 
successful revolutio7i; you close your eyes to the existence of the Govern- 
ment founded upon it, and ignore the high duties of moderation and 
humanity which attach to you in dealing with this great fact. 

It thus appears, that in each and every instance of at- 
tempted negotiation, beginning with the South Carolina 
Commissioners and Mr. Buchanan, and coming down to 
the proposed visit of the Rebel " Vice-President," in July, 
1863, and to the time of putting forth this Address by the 
Rebel Congress in February, 1864, the rebel authorities 
have imiformly adhered to their claim of nationality ; and 
yet, in the face of all this, they pretend to have repeatedly 
offered " terms of conciliation and compromise," and di- 
rectly charge the Federal Government with " the repeated 
rejection" of such terms. 

In all the instances of plain, deliberate, unvarnished 
falsehood, both official and unofficial, which have charac- 
terized the leaders in this rebellion, — and they have been 
neither few nor far between, — this case of the Rebel Presi- 
dent and the Rebel Cono^ress is anions: those which are 
notewortliy ; first, on account of its perfect stark naked- 
ness, having not the least shadow of a basis to rest upon ; 
and secondly, because it is a hypocritical whining to make 
an impression that they are the most peaceful and meek 
creatures upon earth. 



146 RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

The case is a simple one. The facts show that the South 
are responsible for beginning the war, as they are respon- 
sible for beginning the rebellion. They also show that 
both parties are ready for peace, when their terms can be 
granted ; and that they are equally bent on war, in the 
hope that their ends may be gained. 

ANOTHER EFFORT FOR PEACE. NIAGARA FALLS CON- 
FERENCE. 

We have already seen that every movement, official and 
unofficial, on the part of the rebels, for peace, has been 
based on a dismemberment of the Union, and the recog- 
nition and establishment of the Southern Confederacy as 
a separate 7iation. From the beginning till now, while 
mourning over the horrors of the war, and attempting to 
fix the whole responsibility for its continuance upon the 
Government, the rebel leaders and their presses have in- 
sisted on this condition as a sine qua non in any terms of 
peace ; and generally, too, they have taken a course which 
involved this condition, as antecedent even to entering upon 
negotiations. 

The case is not in the least altered by the latest efforts 
which have come to our knowledge. Mr. C. C. Clay, Jr., 
formerly in the United States Senate from Alabama, and 
Professor James P. Holcombe, lately of the Rebel Con- 
gress, from Virginia, met at ISTitigara Falls with Hon. 
Horace Greeley, of New York, about the middle of July, 
and held a consultation about terminating the war and 
settling conditions of peace. It was at first supposed, as 
appears from the correspondence which has been widely 
published, that Messrs. Clay and Holcombe were "duly 
accredited from Richmond, as the bearers of propositions 
looking to the establishment of peace." That impression 
was in some way made upon tlie mmd of Mr. Greeley, and 



ANOTHER EFFORT FOR PEACE. 147 

as he had been requested by them through a third person 
to obtain for them a safe-conduct to Washington, he com- 
municated their desire to the President of the United 
States ; and, thereupon, Mr. Greeley and the President's 
Private Secretary were promptly authorized to go to ISJ^ia- 
gara to consult with them, and to " tender" to them the 
President's "safe-conduct on the journey proposed," pro- 
vided their character and mission were such as Mr. Greeley 
had imagined. It turned out, however, that they were 
not authorized by the Rebel Government. They wholly 
disavow any official character in whicli to conduct negotia- 
tions " looking to the establishment of peace," but declare 
that they are " in the confidential emjjloyment of their 
Government, and are entirely familiar with its wishes 
and opinions on that subject," and think, if they can be 
allowed to go to Washington and to Richmond, that they, 
or other gentlemen, " would be at once invested with the 
authority" to negotiate. 

Mr. Greeley thereupon determined to " solicit fresh in- 
structions" from the President. He immediately obtains 
them; and the President announces the terms on which 
he will receive and consider a proposition for peace " which 
comes by and with an authority that can control the 
armies now at war against the United States." No terms 
had been intimated, by Messrs. Clay and Holcombe, on 
which " their Government" would make peace, though 
they claimed to be "familiar with its wishes." Among 
the terms named by the President as a basis for negotia- 
tions, is that which has always lain at the bottom of the 
strife, and to maintain which the Government has been at 
war from tlie first, viz. : " the integrity of the whole 
Union." This has always been deemed the great and un- 
alterable condition, — the maintenance of our nationality. 

At this point, this conference on the part of the " con- 



148 RESPONSIBILITY FOE THE WAR. 

fidential" employes of the Rebel Government breaks 
down. Jefferson Davis " controls the armies now at war 
against the United States," as the head of that " Govern- 
ment" with whose "wishes and opinions" on peace they 
"are entirely familiar." Knowing that "their Govern- 
ment" is unalterably determined on maintaining indepen- 
dence against " the integrity of the whole Union," they 
declare that their rulers " have no right to barter away 
their priceless heritage of self-govermnent^'' They also 
say for their people at large : " While an ardent desire 
for peace pervades the people of the Confederate States, 
we rejoice to believe that there are few, if any among 
them, who would purchase it at the expense of liberty, 
honor, and self-respect. If it can be secured only by their 
submission to terms of conquest, the generation is yet un- 
born which will witness its restitution." And so the affair 
terminate-s. 

It thus appears from this last semi-official effort, con- 
ducted by these " confidential" gentlemen, that the rebel 
authorities and people, although anxious for peace, and 
anxious to throw the whole responsibility of continuing 
the war upon our Government and people, still insist, as 
the only possible basis for peace, on a total dismember- 
ment of the Union, and a complete establishment of the 
Southern Confederacy as a separate nation. 

MISSION" TO RICHMOND. PEACE AGAIN. 

About the time that the Niagara Falls conference was 
in progress, a mission was undertaken by two gentlemen 
to the rebel capital, which has generally been understood 
to have some connection with movements for peace ; or, 
at least, to ascertain, if possible, the temper of the Rich- 
mond authorities on that subject. 

Whatever its object may have been, it is known that 



MISSION TO EICHMONI>. — PEACE AGArN". 149 

Colonel Jaques, commanding an Illinois regiment in the 
Federal army, and Mr. James R. Gilmore, of Boston, made 
a visit to Richmond in July, and after having intercourse 
with the Rebel President and other officials, returned 
■within the Union lines. Their mission was authorized or 
permitted by the Government at Washington, and they 
were passed through the lines of the army by General 
Grant. They were kindly and hospitably received, as 
they report, during their brief stay in Richmond, and had 
an opportunity to gain valuable information. 

All that bears upon our immediate subject, so far as the 
object of this mission has been made public, is found in a 
letter of Mr. Gilmore, under date of July 22, 1864. Re- 
ferring to the Niagara Falls conference, between Messrs. 
Greeley, Clay, and Holcombe, he says : 

It will result in nothing. Jefferson Davis said to me last Sunday, — 
and, with all his faults, I beheve him a man of truth, — "This war must 
go on till the last of this generation falls in his tracks, and his chQdren 
seize his musket and fight our battle, unless you acknowledge our right to 
self-government. We are not fighting for slavery. "We are fighting for 
Independence, and that, or extermination, we will have." 

This statement shows, that the position taken by Mr. 
Davis as late as Sunday, the 1 7th of July, is precisely the 
same in terms^ upon peace, as that declared by Messrs. 
Clay and Holcombe, in their final note to Mr. Greeley, un- 
der date at Niagara of July 21st. The great point which 
divides the parties is the same now as in the beginning, 
and is that which led to the war ; the rebels determined 
on dividing the Union, destroying our nationality, and 
claiming "self-government and independence;" and our 
Government determined on maintaining our nationality 
and preserving " the integrity of the whole Union." 

Whatever Mr. Davis, — who is indorsed by Mr. Gilmore 
as ''a man of truth," — may find it convenient to say at this 



150 EESPONSIBILITY FOR THE WAR. 

late period, for private or public effect, for domestic or 
trans- Atlantic consumption, about their " not fighting for 
slavery," the world well knows, — the proof comes from 
the rebels themselves, and we have given it in full, — that 
" slavery" was the prompting cause which led them first 
to " secede" for " independence," and then to " fight" in 
order to establish it. 

Our main purpose, however, in referring to these late 
movements upon peace, is to hold up the fact that it is 
our nationality which is at stake in the war; that the 
rebels will not make " peace," though they may constantly 
clamor for it, except on the condition of a total destruction 
of the TJnion. This is their ultimatum^ and it has been 
their position from the first. We are free to say, that as 
to maintain " the integrity of the whole Union" was the 
position taken by our Government and people from the 
first, we hope this position will be held to the end. If on 
that issue the rebels, in the words of their President, 
court " extermination," then let them be exterminated. 

We have said, as simply indicating our opinion, that we 
believed there would be no peace till it was conquered by a 
destruction of the rebel armies, and resulted in the com- 
plete triumph of the Government and the re-establishmeiit 
of the national authority over every foot of the Union. 
This has been our conviction from the first, and it is our 
conviction still. And yet, we have many times seen it 
illustrated since the war began, that it is safest not to pro- 
phesy. It is possible that the leading conspirators may 
be willing to submit to the Government before their mili- 
tary power is totally overthrown, but we doubt it ; and it 
is among the possible eventualities which may occur, as 
the result of the pending Presidential canvass, that the 
people may be wilhng, in order to spare the effusion of 



MISSION TO RICHMOND. PEACE AGAIN. 151 

blood, to submit to a settlement on the basis of a reco<?ni- 
tion of the Rebel Confederacy ; but we have much mis- 
taken what we believe to be their fixed purpose if this 
shall be finally achieved. We shall therefore adhere to 
our earliest and present opinions, until the event shall 
prove them erroneous. 



152 EESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOtJTHEEN CHUECH. 



CHAPTER V. 

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH FOR THE 
REBELLION AND THE WAR. 

In charging the full resj)onsibility for the rebellion upon 
the South, we must go back of the public actors on the 
political arena to find a proper lodgment for a large share 
of it. 

Immediately upon the result of the Presidential election 
of 1860 being made known by the electric flash, the trea- 
sonable work began. 

Upon the sixth of NoTember (the day of the election) [says Dr. 
Palmer, speaking of the people of the seoeded States generally], these 
masses went to bed as firmly attached to the Union as they had ever 
been, and awoke on the seventh, after Mr. Lincoln's election, just as 
determined upon resistance to his rule. The revolution in public opin- 
ion was far too sudden, too universal, and too radical, to be occasioned 
by the craft and jugglery of poUticians. It was not their wire-dancing 
upon party platforms which thus instantaneously broke up the deep 
foundations of the popular will, and produced this spontaneous uprising 
of the people in the majesty of their supremacy ; casting party hacks 
aside, who shall have no control over a movement not having its genesis 
in their machinations. 

The substantial truthfulness, in good part, of what is 
here related, suggests the most painful and humiliating 
feature which the three years' progress of the rebellion 
exhibits. The above was published in April, 1861, in the 
'Southern Presbytei'ian Bevieio, of Columbia, South Caro- 
lina, before the attack upon Fort Sumter. At that time 
the secession of seven States had occurred. As stated in £. 
former chapter, it is well known that a majority of the 



KESPONSIBILITT OF THE SOUTHERN CHUECH. 153 

people in nearly every one of the seceded States was at 
first against secession ; that in fact many of the States were 
carried out by violence, and in direct opposition to the will 
of the people ; and that, as regards the most of them, their 
ordinances of secession were not submitted to a popular 
vote. Dr. Palmer's language is therefore altogether too 
sweeping, as to the suddenness and universality of the 
change in the popular sentiment of even the seven States 
to which he refers. It did not become "universal" and 
" radical" for secession till long afterwards, even if there 
has not always been, as indeed facts assure us, a strong 
Union element in the seceded States. Writing in the 
spring of 1861, he gives the impressions which things then 
occurring about him made upon his enthusiastic nature, 
rather than the facts as they existed immediately after the 
Presidential election. 

The Gulf States had then seceded; the Provisional Gov- 
ernment at Montgomery had been inaugurated ; the bat- 
teries of his own native Carolina were thickly gathering 
around beleagured Sumter ; their opening upon the devoted 
fortress was anxiously awaited, to bring the Old Dominion 
and other States into the ranks of treason ; and already 
Southern orators were painting the visions of coming glory 
which would soon burst in full-orbed splendor upon the 
great Slave Empire of the Gulf. The eloquent divine was 
too much dazzled by that bewildering present and its glow- 
ing future to be a safe chronicler of the events of even the 
then recent past. 

But admitting substantially what he declares on this 
point (only w4th abatement as to time)^ and freely con- 
ceding that "the revolution in public opinion" was by no 
means " occasioned by the craft and jugglery of politicians," 
we are then led to inquire, what mysterious and potent 
agency it was which " broke up the deep foundations of 



V 



154 EESPONSIBILITT OP THE SOUTHERN CHUECH. 

the popular will," and which, if it did not assume, by 
"casting party hacks aside," absolute control over a 
movement not having " its genesis in their machinations," 
did at least furnish the intellectual and moral pabulum 
upon which the popular appetite was feasted, and the 
popular strength nerved for the dark deeds which were 
before it? We would know who is to be held chiejly 
respo7isihle^ when we are told that " the deep foundations 
of the popular will" were broken up in a single night, and 
that the great popular heart, hitherto " firmly attached to 
the Union," was so suddenly, by a " spontaneous uprising 
of the people in the majesty of their supremacy," brought 
to abjure the Union, and to love all that was treacherous 
and perjured and vile ! 

There must have been some powerful cause for this, of 
which he does not inform us. The people never act with- 
out leaders, in a revolution or in any other great move- 
ment. We have no difficulty in finding the secret which 
perhaps Dr. Palmer's modesty would withhold. His own 
teachings, in good part, and the teachings of others of his 
own profession, furnish the mournful answer to these 
astounding questions. 

The real truth of the case deliberately and solemnly 
holds the Southern Church and the Southern ministry, — or 
the Southern ministry, '^ith a few influential laymen, lead- 
ing the Southern Church, and they together leading the 
more influential portion of the Southern millions, — to a 
vastly higher responsibility for the inception, advocacy, 
progress, and tlie consequences resulting, of this treason 
and rebellion, than any other class among the Southern 
people ; and, in asserting this, we but agree with Southern 
statesmen, whose testimony, to be given in due time, cor- 
roborates what the palpable facts so fully and lamentably 
declare. 



BEV. J. H. THORNWELL AIDS THE REBELLION. 155 
EARLY AGENCY OF LEADING DIVINES. 

To substantiate this grave indictment, it is only neces- 
sary to notice events in the order of their occurrence, at 
the beginning of the rebellion and for the few montlis 
which immediately succeeded. The Presidential election 
occurred on the sixth of November, 1860, and the ferment 
in Soutii Carolina commenced immediately after, and soon 
spread into other States. The State authorities of South 
Carolina, — who, we presume, are included by Dr. Palmer 
among those that on the sixth of November " went to bed 
as firmly attached to the Union as they had ever been (for 
thirty years at least), and aAvoke on the seventh, after Mr. 
Lincoln's election, just as determined upon resistance to 
his rule," — were not at least then so taken up with " their 
wii-e-dancing upon party platforms," that they could not 
think upon their schemes with what we must charitably 
suppose was some little serious concern ; and so they ap- 
pointed a State Fast for the twenty-first of November, 
just fifteen days after the election. We have the sermon 
which was preached on that day by Dr. Thornwell, at 
Columbia, the State capital. 

REV. JAMES H. THORNWELL, D. D., AIDS THE REBELLION. 

All who have known the preacher, and the reputation 
be had, know that he was a man of master mind and com- 
manding influence. He combined logical acuteness, 
strength in argument, perspicuity of style, and oratorical 
power, as they are found in but very few men. He was 
idolized and honored both in and out of the Church, in his 
native State and elsewhere, for his great natural abilities, 
profound attainments, and ripe scliolarship. We cannot 
detract from his fair fame in any of these respects, nor 
have we the least disposition to do so. He was in all 



15(5 KESrONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHEEN CHURCH. 

respects a very eminent man. In the South he was called 
"the Calhoun of the Church." He had been President of 
the State College at Columbia, had often preached before 
the South Carolina Legislature, at their request, and was, 
at the lime the rebellion began, a Professor in the Theo- 
logical Seminary of the Presbyterian Church at Columbia. 

As his work is done on earth, and he has departed this 
life, we cannot say any thing disparaging to his memory, 
iurther than a condenmation of his sentiments and great 
influence, as giving early and efficient aid to a most wicked 
rebellion, may be construed as doing so. We know of no 
])rinciple in ethics, however, which would justly condemn 
:i candid examination at the present time of what he wrote 
v.nd published, and the holding of the influence which he 
exerted in favor of the rebellion to its just measure of re- 
f-ponsibility, which would not also condemn the animad- 
version of the historian a hundred years hence. In what 
we say, therefore, here and elsewhere, we shall exhibit no 
squeamishness in dealing with his views. We admired 
1 im when living, and for the same qualities we admire 
] im now, dead; and simply of the raajt we can sincerely 
say, Heqiiiescat in pace. But his pui dished sentiments 
upon the rebellion, as upon every other subject, are the 
] roperty of the public. 

This sermon of Dr. Thornwell, preached so soon after 
llie Presidential election, and only wanting a day of one 
f dl month before the secession of the Stale of South Caro- 
I na and the assembling of her Convention, enters into and 
r.rges the whole doctrine of secession on the ground of 
(Constitutional right, the alleged encroachment upon 
elavery being given as the justifying cause. We need not 
s.iy that this work was done with ability. It could not 
bo done otherwise, when the preaclier attempted to lay out 
Irs strength. We give only a sentence or two from this 



DR. TIIOBNWELL's FAST-DAY DISCOURSE. 157 

discourse, the object being simply to show his position 
rather than his argument, as our only aim here is to pre- 
sent the simple fact of responsibility^ as seen in the order 
of time. An article published soon after, to which we 
shall subsequently refer, presents his argument for seces- 
sion more fully, justifying it on the same ground here 
assumed, the alleged encroachments upon slavery. 

HIS FAST-DAT DISCOURSE, XOY. 21, 1860. 

In his sermon he says : 

The Union which our fathers designed to be perpetual, is on the 
verge of dissohition. A name once dear to our hearts, has become in- 
tolerable to entire States. Once admired, loved, almost adored, as the 
citadel and safeguard of freedom, it has become, in many minds, synony- 
mous with oppression, with treachery, with falsehood, and with vio- 
lence. The Government to which we once invited the victims of 
tyranny from every part of the world, and under whose ample shield 
we gloried in promising them security and protection — that Government 
has become hateful in the very regions in which it was once hailed 
with the greatest loyalty. 

The cause of this feeling in the South is thus stated : 

There is one subject, however, in relation to which the non-slavehold- 
ing States have not only broken faith, but have justified their course 
upon the plea of conscience. We allude to the subject of slavery. They 
have been reluctant to open the Territories to the introduction of slaves, 
and have refused to restore fugitives to their masters. * * * i gi^all 
restrict myself to our dealings with the institution which has produced 
the present convulsions of the country, and brought us to the verge of 
ruin. [And near the close he warns his hearers, that, for the sake of 
''the institution," they may have to meet the horrors of war and car- 
nage — prophetic, and awfully true:] Even though our cause be just, 
and our course approved of Heaven, our path to victory may he through 
a baptism of Uood. Liberty has its martyrs and confessors, as well as 
religion. The oak is rooted amid wintry storms. * * * Our State 
may suffer ; she may suffer grievously ; she may suffer long. Be it so : 
we shall love her all the more tenderly and the more intensely, the 
more bitterly she suffers. 



158 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

The foregoing sentences, to uhich many in a similar 
strain might be added, show the key-note thus early 
struck. How eloquent and earnest men become, — and the 
ministers of religion, too, — wlien pleading for "slavery" 
in the name of "liberty," and braving all the miseries of 
war for its sake!* 

HE VINDICATES THE SECESSION OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

South Carolina seceded on the 20th of December, 18G0. 
Immediately after. Dr. Thornwell wrote his elaborate 
vindication of the act, reviewing the " Ordinance" and 
"Declaration of the Immediate Causes," &c., put forth by 
the Convention. It was published in the Southern Fres- 
hyterian (Quarterly) lievieic^ for .January, 1861. It was 
regarded by Soutliern statesmen as by fir the ablest paper 
written on the subject, and several editions were published 
and sowm broadcast over the South. In tliis article he 
says: 

* An event showing Dr. Thorn well's animus about secession, occurred still 
earlier. The Presidential electors in South Carolina are chosen by the Legislature 
instead of by the people. The Legislature met on the day of election (Nov. 6th, 
1S60) to choose electors. Dr. Thornwell opened the session with prayer. We have 
this prayer, at length, as taken at the time from a Southern paper. In the midst of 
much that is excellent, these sentences are found, which, considering the time, 
occasion, and circumstances, are significant of what soon after became open treason 
and rebellion : "O God! the destiny of this country may turn upon the events of a 
few short hours." '• Give wisdom to all our assemblies ; give the spirit of a sound 
mind to the members of this Confederacy, and grant that Thy name may be glorified. 
If it be Thy will that a different destiny awaits us, we ask Thy blessing upon our 
Commonwealth." " We beseech that Thy favor may rest upon all those States that 
have a common interest with us. We beseech Thee that they may be bound to- 
gether in the holy tics of truth, justice, and l<)ve. Give us, we beseech Thee, an 
honorable name among the nations of the earth." Dr. Thornwell avowed himself 
for rebellion even earlier than election day, by at least some six months. When 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church was sitting in Rochester, New 
York, in May, the news of Mr. Lincoln's nomination at Chicago, just then made, 
became a topic of conversation. Dr. Thornwell declared that if either Mr. Lincoln 
or Mr. Douglas were elected, the Southern States would inevitably secede ; that 
neither was acceptable to the South : that secession was a foregone conclusion ; and 
that the South would not and ought no-t to acquiesce in the election of either. 



OPEX EESISTAXCE COUXSELLED. 159 

South Carolina has now become a separate and independent State. 
She takes her place as an equal among the other nations of the earth. 
This is certainly one of the most grave and important events of modern 
times. It involves the destiny of a continent, and, through that conti- 
nent, the fortunes of the human race. 

This fixes the writer's own estimate of the responsibility 
which he and his fellow-clergymen assumed in taking the 
lead in a matter so momentous. 

He then proposes to declare " the causes which have 
brought about this astounding result;" declares, "that 
there was a cause, and an adequate cause, might be pre- 
sumed from the character of the Convention which passed 
the ordinance of secession, and the perfect unanimity with 
which it was done;" that "it embraced the wisdom, 
moderation, and integrity of the bench, the learning and 
prudence of the bar, and the eloquence and pietij of the 
2)ulpit y" and then says, showing the cause to be what we 
have before stated, that it Mas " the universal sentiment 
of all, that the Constitution of the United States has been 
virtually repealed, and that every daveholdinrj State has 
just (/round for secession.''^ He then, in view of the fact 
assumed, "that the Constitution, in its relations to slavery^ 
has been virtually repealed," says: " If this point can be 
made out, secessio7i becomes not only a right^ but a bounden 
dutyP Such is the burden of the argument which per- 
vades the entire article. 

OPEX RESISTANCE COUN^SELLED. 

The following sentences will show still further, from 
the same article, how open resistance to the Government 
was urged at this early period by this stanch Churchman, 
and the responsibility Avhich he, as an influential leader of 
God's people, thus voluntarily assumed : 

Now, we say that this state of things is not to be borne. A free people 
can never consent to their o^\ai degradation. * * * jf^ therefore, 



160 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

the South is not prepared to see her institutions surrounded by enemies, 
and wither and decay under these hostile influences ; if she means to 
cherish and protect them, it is her hounden duty to resist tlie revohition 
which threatens them witli ruin. The triumph of the principles. which 
Mr. Lincoln is pledged to carry out, is the death-knell of slavery.* 

More exhortations to open resistance are found in this 
article : 

If the South could be induced to submit to Lincoln, the time, we con- 
fidently predict, will come when all grounds of controversy will be 
removed in relation to fugitive slaves, by expunging the provision under 
which they are claimed. The principle is at work and enthroned in 
power, whose inevitable tendency is to secure this result. Let us crush 
the serpent in the egg. * * * Wo know it to be the fixed determina- 
tion of them all (the slaveholding States), not to acquiesce in the prin- 
ciples which have brought Mr. Lincoln into power. * * « The evil 
day may be put off, but it must come. The country must he divided into 
two people, and the point which we wish now to press upon the whole 
South, is the importance of prejMring at once for this consummation. 
* * * Conquered we never can be. * * * ^o save the Union is 
impossible. * * * "We prefer peace — hut if war must come, we are 
prepared to meet it with unshaken confidence in the God of battles. 

CHARGE OF TREASON ESTABLISHED. 

The foregoing is sufficient to show the influence which 
the powerful pen of Dr. Thorn well gave to secession, when 
it was yet in its embryo state, with the exception of South 
Carolina. K these utterances are not, — morally and be- 
fore God, and by the Constitution and laws, — instinct with 
treason., then it is difficult to define the term. The Con- 
stitution of the United States (" to which," even Dr. Thorn- 
well admits, "these States swore allegiance") says: 

* We have shown in previous pages, by documentary proof, that so ftxr from Mr. 
Lincoln having been "pledged to can-y out" any "principles" which would interfere 
with the rights of the States over slavery, he was "pledged" to do just the contrary; 
by all the speeches he made and letters he wrote when a candidate, by the platform 
of the party that nominated him, by his letter of acceptance, by his Inaugural 
Address, and by all else he said and did. 



DRS. THORIS^WELL, LELAXD, AXD ADGEE. 161 

" Treason against tlie United States shall consist only in 
levying wnr against them, or in adhering to their enemies, 
giving them aid and comfort." Dr. Thornwell's writings 
and speeches show an adherence to the " enemies" of the 
Government, and were a powerful incitement to the " war" 
now raging ; were so used, and thus gave the most sub- 
stantial "aid and comfort" to rebels in arms, — that of 
moral countenance and earnest support, the most essential 
element of success, and without which powder and lead 
and all other " aid" are worthless. 

But hoAv civil tribunals would regard such a case, is not 
with us the chief question. By the doctrines of religion, 
and before the bar of God, he was guilty of one of the 
highest crimes against the State, — God's own ordiiiance,— 
which any man can commit. That he was sincere, we do 
not doubt, but that does not relieve his criminality. He 
was a minister of the Gospel, of the highest ability and in- 
fluence. He is largely responsible for bringing the Church, 
— one of the most powerful elements of society, — to " aid" 
in the horrid work of treason, rebellion, and war. 

DKS. THORXAVELL, LELAXD, AXD ADGER, UPON THE STUMP. 

In addition to the power of his pen, Dr. Thorn well gave 
his eloquent voice to the cause of treason, at a meeting 
held at the capital of South Carolina, to ratify her seces- 
sion. 

In the JVorth Carolina Preshyterian, of January 5, 
1861, is found a letter from " a student of Columbia Semi- 
nary," detailing the proceedings of " the great ratification 
meeting," held at Columbia, "which was called to indorse 
the action of the Convention." He says : "Many of the 
clergy were called on to express their views in regard to 
this important matter. Rev. Drs. Tliornwell, Leland, 
Adger (all Professors in the Theological Seminary), and 



162 KESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

Reynolds, and Rev. Messrs. Mullaly and Brecker, addressed 
the meeting." This shows how early, and how exten 
sively, the clergy of the South became the open advocates 
of treason and rebellion. The writer then gives an ac- 
count chiefly of Dr. Thorn well's speech, as follows : 

Dr. Thornwell spoke at some length. He said that he had foreseen, 
and some time ago predicted, the course which our affairs would take, 
in case that Lincoln, or any other man with his avowed principles, was 
elected President. As to the right of secession, he said that he held 
that the election of Lincoln is equivalent to presenting a new Constitution 
to the States, and asking them to subscribe to it. Secession is only re- 
fusing to abohsh the old and adopt the new Constitution now presented 
to us by the Black Republican party. The avowed principles of this 
party are not constitutional, and its success in electing the President of 
the United States upon principles which, if carried into effect, wiU sub- 
vert the National Constitution, and trample it under foot, and set up a 
sectional one in its stead, is equivalent to putting the question to the 
States, Will you submit to this new Constitution or not ? Secession is 
the refusal to submit, and is therefore not unconstitutional. The Con- 
stitution to which these States swore allegiance has been wrested from 
us, and something else, gotten up by a sectional party, is presented to us 
in its stead. He advised that the State act with calmness, cairtion, and 
decision, and so demean herself towards her sister Southern States, as 
to secure, if possible, their co-operation with us. He believed that all 
our sister Southern States would co-operate with us, and that we would 
be permitted to withdraw peaceably from the United States. He hoped 
to see two Republics standing side by side, and becoming all the greater, 
by the honest rivalry that would exist between them. Rashness and 
temerity on our part would repel our sister States from us, which are 
one with us, — one in race, one in institutions, one in interest, and we 
believe that they should be one in a separate. Southern Confederacy. 
All the other speeches were of a similar tone, and breathed the same 
spirit. I think I can safely say, that this report expresses the senti- 
ment of the people of this State. 

Dr. Thornwell admits that " the States swore allegiance 
to the Constitution ;" then they violated that " allegiance" 
by secession. 



DR. PALMER AND SENATOR TOOMBS. 163 

EARLY AID OP REV. B. M. PALMIER, D. D. 

The influence of Dr. Palmer was publicly given in favoi 
of secession only eight days after Dr. Thornwell's Fast-Da} 
discourse was preached. On the day of the State Thanks- 
giving in Louisiana, the 29th of November, 1860, h( 
preached in New Orleans a discourse (before quoted), ir 
which he vehemently urged secession, justifying it on the 
same ground taken by Dr. Thornwell, the apprehensions ol 
governmental interference with slavery. 

DR. PALMER AND THE MISSION OF SENATOR TOOMBS. 

We have heard related an occurrence of singular signifi- 
cance connected with this Thanksgiving service. We 
cannot personally vouch for its truth, but its authority is 
said to be the Hon. Miles Taylor, a member of the United 
States House of Representatives of the Congress of 
1860-61, and among the last of the Union members from 
Louisiana to give up his seat after the secession of that 
State. The case strongly illustrates the estimate which 
Southern statesmen had of the ability of the Church to aid 
the rebellion, the necessity they felt of enlisting the Chris- 
tian portion of the community in leading the way, and the 
ready compliance of an eloquent divine with their wishes. 

It is well known that a strong Union sentiment existed 
in Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans, long after 
secession had carried over other States, and that the 
vote of the people of Louisiana, when it was finally taken, 
was actually against secession, and was never officially 
declared. So ini23ortant was it deemed to have New 
Orleans move in the matter early, that Mr. Robert Toombs, 
of Georgia, still holding iiis seat in the United States 
Senate, and occupying it long' afterwards, was sent with 
other distinguished gentlemen on a mission to that be- 



IQ-i RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

nighted city, to stir np its sluggish waters. He went and 
surveyed the ground, canvassing the matter with leading 
citizens privately, but met with little success. He was 
about to abandon the field of his missionary enterprise in 
despair. 

At length, it was agreed that Dr. Palmer should be 
somided by some of his friends, and it was found that he 
was willing to break ground publicly. He entered on the 
work con amove, and preached on Thanksgiving Day, 
The result is known. Previous to the 29th of November, 
Mr. Toombs, in the role of a missionary, was likely to 
prove a sad failure. True, indeed, his native abilities, edu- 
cation, long course of training, and other qualifications for 
the peculiar work in hand, were of a high order, but he 
could make no headway, and could scarcely get a congre- 
gation to hear his discourses. He had only mistaken his 
field. He had come among a people where the heresy of 
fealty to the Union was too deeply rooted for him to 
eradicate. They abjured this kind of " political preachers." 
They must first hear the new Gospel, founded on slavery as 
the chief " corner-stone," from the pulpit rather than the 
rostrum. Dr. Palmer supplied what Mr. Toombs lacked, 
and the eftect was sudden and wonderful. Mr. Toombs 
had sown some seed, but Dr. Palmer gathered an imme- 
diate harvest. It was found, after the delivery of his ser- 
mon, that the secession mania spread like fire in a prairie ; 
a great levival of the spirit of latent treason occurred, and 
conversions to the new faith were greatly multiplied. 

Dr. Palmer's congregation, by far the largest and most 
influential in the city, were mostly taken by surprise, and 
some among its leading men at first strongly dissented. 
But his eloquence, always of a high order of a certain kind, 
carried the mass of his hearers captive, and the dissentients 
at length for the most part yielded. His discourse was 



SPECIMEN OF THANKSGIVING DISCOURSE. 166 

immediately published, not only in New Orleans, but in 
Georgia and South Carolina, and spread over the South 
far and wide. "We have in our possession copies of it from 
several diflereut editions. This was the work of Novem- 
ber, 1860. 

SPECIMEN OF HIS THANKSGIVING DISCOUESE. 

A few passages from this discourse are here given, simply 
to show tlie lead ivhich the Church took, through her ablest 
ministers, at the earliest moment, and before the seces- 
sion of a single State. His treasonable exhortations are 
found in the introduction, and pervade every part of his 
discourse. We give a sample of them : 

In the triumph, of a sectional TOajority, we are compelled to read the 
probable doom of our once happy and united Confederacy. * * * 
The hour has come. At a juncture so solemn as the present, with the 
destiny of a great people waiting upon the decision of an hour, it is not 
lawful to be stiU. Whoever may have influence to shape jpxibUc opinion, 
at such a time must lend it, or prove faithless to a trust as solemn as 
any to be accounted for at the bar of God, 

Truer words were never spoken, both as to the duty 
and the responsibility. Dr. Palmer had such influence ; 
but how disastrously did he use it ! But hear him further : 

Is it immodest in me to assume that I may represent a class whose 
opinions in such a controversy are of cardinal importance — ^the class 
which seeks to ascertain its duty in the light simply of conscience and 
religion, and which turns to the moralist and the Christian for support 
and guidance ? The question, too, which now places us upon the brink 
of revolution, was, in its origin, a question of morals and rehgion.* 
It was debated in ecclesiastical councils before it entered Legislative 
halls. * * * The right determination of this primary question will 

* Why cannot Prof. Christy, and all that class of Northern " allies" of the South, 
as Jefferson termed such men in his day,— who are ever declaiming, when the 
Church takes action upon slavery, that she is meddling with that which does not 
properly concern her,— learn a lesson here from their friends ? Dr. Palmer allows 
slavery, the " question" to which he here refers, a place within the domain of 
"morals and religion;" but they cull it '•politics.' 



166 EESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

go far towards fixing the attitude we must assume in the coming 
struggle. 

How clearly does he recognize the fact tliat the people 
of God, and the mass of the community too, look to their 
religious teachers for guidance; and how momentous must 
be the guilt if they lead them astray, — into treason, rebel- 
lion, and war, against lawful authority embodied in a 
Government which their own ablest statesmen declared, 
during the very month when Dr. Palmer preached, had 
done the South no manner of harm !* 

* Mr. Stephens, the rebel Vice-President, in a s.peech before the Georgia Legisla- 
ture, November 14, 18G0, says: "The first question that presents itself is, Shall the 
people of the South secede from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. 
Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States? My countrymen, / tell you 
franJdy, caiididly, and earnestly ^ that I do not think they ovght. * * * To 
make a point of resistance to the Government; to withdraw from it, when a man 
has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the wrong. We are pledged to main- 
tain the Constitution. Many of us have sworn to support it. * * * Lot not the 
South, let us not be the ones to commit the aggression. We went into the election 
with this people. The result was different from what we wished ; but the election 
has been constitutionally held. Were we to make a point of resistance to the Gov- 
ernment, and go out of the Union on that account, the record would be made up 
hereafter against us. * * * I do not anticipate that Lincoln will do any thing to 
jeopard our safety or security. * * * He can do nothing unless he is backed by 
power in Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in the majority against 
him. In the Senate he will also be powerless. There Avill be a majority of four 
against him. * * * Why, then, I say, should we disrupt the ties of this Union 
when his hands are tied, when he can do nothing against us? * * * My coun- 
trymen, I am not of those who believe this Union has b«en a curse up to this time, 

* * * This Government of our fathers, with all its defects, comes nearer t7i4^ 
objects of all good Governments than any other on the face of the earth. This is 
m.y settled con/vietion. Contrast it noivicith any on the face of the earth. * * * 
This Model Repuhlic is the best which the history of the world gives any account 
of. * * * Where will you go, following the sun in his circuit round the globe, 
to find a Government that better protects the liberties of its people, and secures to 
them the blessings Ave enjoy? I think that one of the evils that beset us is a surfeit 
of liberty, an exuberance of the priceless blessings for which we are ungrateful. 

* * * Suppose it be admitted that all of these are evils in the system, do they 
overbalance and outweigh the advantages and great good which this same Govern- 
ment afl'ords, in a thousand innumerable ways that cannot be estimated? Have we 
not at the South, as well as at the North, grown great, prosperous, and happy under 
its operation? Has any part of the world ever shown such rapid progress in the 
development of wealth, and all the material resources of national power and great- 
ness, as the /Southern States have under the General Government^ noticHhstand- 



WAK WELCOMED. THE UNION DENOUNCED. 167 

RESISTANCE COUNSELLED. THE LAST DITCH. 

But to proceed witk this traitorous and war-exliorting 
discourse. On speaking of the "trust" committed to the 
South, " to preserve and transmit our existing system of 
domestic servitude," he says : 

This trust we will discharge in the face of the worst possible peril. 
Though war be the aggregation of all evils, yet, should the madness of 
the hour appeal to the arbitration of the sword, we will not slirink even 
from the baptism of fire. If modern crusaders stand in serried ranks 
upon some plain of Esdraelon, there shall we be in defence of our trust. 
Not till the last man has fallen behind the last rampart, shall it drop from 
our hands ; and then only in surrender to the God who gave it. 

This, we presume, is the true origin of the favorite 
phrase, — so far as the present war is concerned, — which 
has filled so large a space in Southern belligerent literature, 
of " dying in the last ditch.'''' As to the " surrender" of 
the " trust" of preserving and transmitting slavery, for 
which the rehellion was midertaken, events look very 
much as though God had already made the demand. 

WAR WELCOMED. THE UNION DENOUNCED. 

But there is more treason and war here, and so much 
indeed that one can almost take the sentences at random : 

The moment must arise when the conflict must le joined, and victory 

ing all Us defects f * * * This appeal to go out, with all the provisions for 
good that accompany it, I look upon as a great, and I fear a fatal temptation. When 
I look around and see our prosperity In every thing, agriculture, commerce, art, 
science, and every department of education, physical and mental as well as moral 
advancement, and our colleges, I think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can 
without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, remain in the Union, it 
is our duty to ourselves and to posterity to do so." 

While this foremost statesman of the South was thus truthfully jjortraying be- 
fore the Georgia Legislature the blessings of the Union, and the great prosperity 
and good of every kind, to every part of the country, resulting from the action of the 
General Government, the leading clergymen of the South, in that very month of 
November, were, from the pulpit and the press, striving to bring that Government 
into contempt in the eyes of all men, and were exhorting to treason and rebellion 
against it, braving defiantly all the horrors of ^vjn-; 



1G8 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

decide for one or the other. * * * Is it possible that we can hesitate 
longer than a moment ? In our natural recoil from the perils of revolu- 
tion^ and with our clinging fondness for the memories of the past, wo 
may perhaps look around for something to soften the asperity of the 
issue, for some ground on which we may defer the day of evil, for some 
hope tliat the gathering clouds may not burst in fury upon the land. 

Then, after answering the objections of those who might 
be supposed to be not quite ready for the wicked work to 
which he exhorts them, and to strengthen the timid, he 
proceeds : 

But the plea is idle. * * * i gay it with solemnity and pain, 
this Union of our forefathers is alrcachj gone. * * * I throw off the 
yoke of this Union as readily as did our ancestors the yoke of King 
George III., and for causes immeasurably stronger than those pleaded 
in their celebrated Declaration. 

Then, after replying to other objections of the wavering 
and the Union-loving, he urges '^ the Southern States" to 
" reclaim the powers they have delegated ;" to " take all 
the necessary steps looking to separate and independent 
existence ;" and " thus, prepared for every contingency," to 
" let the crisis come." Fearing that these exhortations 
may not be effective, he flatters Southern pride a little : 

The position of the South is at this moment sublime. If she has 
grace given her to know her hour, she will save herself, the country, and 
the world. It will involve, indeed, temporary prostration and distress ; 
the dikes of Holland must be cut to save her from the troops of Philip. 
But I warn my countrymen, the historic moment, once passed, never 
returns. 

THE PROPHECY FULFILLED UNEXPECTEDLY. 

It is a noticeable fact, and finds its illustrations all over 
the Southern rebel States, that the very evils which the 
rebels imagined were to be averted by their revolt, are the 
evils which their rebellion has brought upon them. Dr. 



DR. PALMER S SERMON STEEPED IN SIN. 169 

Palmer, in view of the consequences of " sujimitting to 
Lincoln," thus warns : 

Our children will go forth beggared from the homes of their fathers. 
Fishermen will cast their nets where your proud commercial navy now 
rides at anchor, and dry them upon the shore now covered with your 
bales of merchandise. Sapped, circumvented, undermined, the institu- 
tions of your soil will be overthrown ; and within five-and-twenty years, 
the history of St. Domingo will be the record of Louisiana. 

The picture here drawn of New Orleans is wellnigh 
true, but from " resistance" rather than " submission," and 
much sooner than was anticipated ; and so of the South at 
large. We hope the horrors of St. Domingo are not to be 
added to what they already suffer, but if they are, poster- 
ity will blame none but the rebels themselves. 

On the last page of this eloquent utterance of treason, 
Dr. Palmer says : 

I am impelled to decpe?i the sentiment of resistance in the Sotdhern mind, 
and to strengthen the current now flowing toward a union of the South 
in defence of her chartered rights. It is a duty which I shall not 
be called to repeat, for such awful junctures do not occur twice in a 
century. 

HIS SERMON STEEPED IN SIN, GUILT, AND CRIME. 

No man who has correct ideas of the moral responsi- 
bility of a minister of the Gospel in the pulpit, — to God 
and religion, to society and civil government, — can rise 
from the perusal of this discourse, delivered at such 
a juncture and in such a place, without a painful sense 
of the great guilt of making such an utterance. Our 
hope is, that such men may see the sin and repent of 
it before they die. It was a sin, and an exhortation 

TO SIN. 

It will be seen from the date of the discourse, that three 
weeks before the secession of the first State, and before 



170 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

any public movement for secession had been made in New 
Orleans, and while the masses of the people there were 
still strongly attached to the Union, as is known by the 
Union meetings which were held long afterwards, Dr. 
Palmer threw himself into the van and made these bold 
utterances for treason. He mounted the very crest of the 
wave and became the king of the storm. 

HE FURTHER VINDICATES SECESSION. 

In April, 1861, Dr. Palmer published in the Southern 
Presbyterian (quarterly) Bevieic his " Vindication of Se- 
cession and the South." In tliis article, as Dr. Thornwell 
had done before him in the same periodical, he argues at 
length in favor of the Constitutional right of secession, 
justifying it on the charge that the rights of slavery had 
been infringed and were in danger. Here, Dr. Palmer 
again strikes out boldly for secession, vindicating it in 
seven States which had already gone out, and indicating 
the hope and making the prophecy that all the remaining 
slave States would follow them. We give a brief extract 
from the article, where he speaks of the course of South 
Carolina, his native State : 

"When all hope of safety had died within her, she stood calmly under 
the shadow of the Capitol, before the clock which silently told the Nation's 
hours, and which would ere long sound the knell of its destiny. No 
sooner was this heard, in the shout of Black Republican success, than 
she leaped, feeble handed and alone, into the deadly breach. History 
has nowhere upon her records a more sublime example of moral hero- 
ism. Ignorant whether she would be supported, even by her sister 
across the Savannah, relying on nothing save the righteousness of her 
cause and the power of God, she took upon her shield and spear as 
desperate and as sacred a conflict as ever made a State immortal. * * * 
The Genius of history has already wreathed the garland with which 
her brow shall be decked. Long may she live, the mother of heroes 
who shall be worthy of tlicir birth ! 



EEV. THOS. SMYTH, D. D. I7l 

There is the same strain of eloquent treason all through 
the article. But we forbear further quotations, as we have 
given the same sentiments, at considerable length, in his 
earlier utterances. 

EEY. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D., STRIKES THE SAME CHORD. 

Among many other examples of labored essays and dis- 
courses similar to the foregoing, we give but one. Dr. 
Thomas Smyth, of Charleston, S. C, a distinguished eccle- 
siastical author, has written one of the most earnest and 
passionate articles which the literature of the rebellion 
has produced. It is found in the Southern Presbyterian 
Beview for April, 1863, entitled, "The War of the South 
Vindicated," and is divided into four parts, as follows : 
" 1. The war of the South is in self-defence ; 2. The war 
of the South vindicated by the fundamental principles of 
American Liberty ; 3. The war of the South is justified 
as a defensive war against fanatical abolition ; 4. The 
Divine right of secession," 

Like all Southern writers, he makes the dangers to be 
apprehended to slavery, the cause of secession and justify- 
ing resistance to the Government ; and making slavery, in 
its preservation and extension, a religious duty, he thus 
justifies the war on their part : 

We have taken up arms for the defence of our civil and religious 
rights, and God, our country, and the world at large, call upon us to 
acquit ourselves like men, for our wives and our little ones, for our 
homes, our sanctuaries, and even our religion itself. * * * The war 
now carried on by the North is a war against slavery, and is, therefore, 
treasonable rebellion against the Constitution of the United States, and 
against the word, providence, and government of God. 

The groundless assertions of Dr. Smyth form a striking 
charactei'istic of the article : 



172 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

The Missouri Compromise, forced upon the South by the North, only 
to be immediately and constantly resisted and perverted, rung the 
death-knell of the Union. * * * The North first entrapped the 
South into the Union, under false pretences and hypocritical promises. 
* * * The sure beginning of the sad end was formally laid down in 
the platform of the Republican party, on whose basis the present aboU- 
tion administration was clothed with power to rend the Union, and to 
involve in one common ruin the happiness of both North and South. 

The total untruthfulness of what is here asserted about 
this " platform," we have demonstrated in previous pages. 

JUDGMENT AND BLESSING. 

Here is a contrast between the North and the South : 

This war is a judgment upon the North, for its persistent, perjured, 
abolition fuua.ticism. Nearly severing the Union in 1790, it rung its 
death-knell in 1820, and has since then inflamed an irrepressible con- 
flict, which has now destroyed the Union, and is overwhelming the 
North in inextricable difficulties. 

Dr. Smyth tlius regards attempts to destroy the Union 
as wicked, bringing down Divine judgment. What, then, 
is the South to receive for her present attempt ? Only 
blessing, in this way : 

God is working out a problem in the physical, social, political, and 
world-wide heneficial character of slavery, as a great missionary agency^ 
of unexampled prosperity and success, which He is now demonstrating to 
the family of nations. In this war the South, therefore, is on God's 
side. She has His word, and providence, and omnipotent government, 
with her. And if she is found faithful to Him, and to this institution, 
which He has put under her spiritual care, then the heavens and earth 
may pass away, but God will not fail to vindicate His eternal providence, 
and defend and deliver His people, who walk in His statutes and com- 
mandments blameless. 

RESISTANCE UNIVERSALLY INSTILLED. 

This whole article is very iriuch of the character of the 
foregoing extracts. We give its ck)sing paragraph, as an 
example to show how the Southern clergv, besides being 



THE CLERGY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS. 173 

leaders in treason, have hloicn the rebel war-trumpet from 
first to last : 

Let the spirit of resistance be infused, with its mother's milk, into the 
baby in its cradle. Let it mingle with the plays of childhood. Let it 
animate the boy in its mimic manhood ; the maiden in the exercise of 
her magic, spell-ljinding influence ; the betrotlied in her soul-subduing 
trance of liope and memory ; the bride at the altar ; the wife in tlie arms 
of lier rejoicing husband ; the young mother amid her whirl of ecstatic 
joy ; the matron in the bosom of her admiring children ; and the father 
as he dreams fondly of the fortune and glory of his aspiring sons— let it 
fire the man of business at his place of merchandise ; the lawyer among 
his briefs ; the mechanic in his wortcshop : the planter in his fields ; the 
laborer as he plies his pruning-hook and follows his plough ; — let the 
trinu'pet hloio in Zlon, mid Id all her watchmen lift up their voice; — let all 
the people, everywhere, old and young, bond and free, take up tlie ivar- 
cry, and say, each to his neighlior, "Gather ye together, and come 
against them, and rise up to the battle." 

These extracts would seem to show that the fervency of 
tlie clergy of the South in the rebel cause advances with 
the progress of events. Dr. Smyth, if possible, is more 
intensified with the furor and frenzy of the strife than the 
other South Carolina Doctors. But these things from his 
pen were written at a later period. Nor have we given 
by any means the most glowing of his sentences, as will be 
seen in a subsequent chapter, where we illustrate another 
phase of the subject. 

THE CLERGY OF ALL DENOMINATIONS AID THE REBEL- 
LION. 

Other ministers of every denomination all over the SoutJ 
joined in urging on the rebellion, and some of the more 
distino-uished of them were as early in the v/ork as those 
we have mentioned. The course of the Riglit Reverend 
Leonidas Polk, D. D., Bishoj) of the Episcopal Church in 
Louisiana, early a Major-General in the rebel army (lately 



174 KESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

killed in buttle in Georgia), is too well known to need 
any thing more tlian to be named. Bishop Elliott, of Geor- 
gia, Cobb, of Alabama, Green, of Mississippi, all of the same 
Chiireh, — and, indeed, nearly all the influential ministers of 
all the Protestant denominations in the South, — took early 
position and gave the whole weight of their social and offi- 
cial influence in direct aid of the rebellion. Names of the 
most distinguished could be given in great number if neces- 
sary. Drs. Mitchell, of Alabama, and Waddel, President 
of La Grange College, Tennessee, wrote elaborate articles 
in aid of the rebellion at a very early period. 

Every rehgious newspaper of the rebel States, — and they 
were all edited by ministers of the Gospel, — located at 
Nashville, New Orleans, Columbia, Fayetteville, Rich- 
mond, and other cities, urged secession in most cases from 
the first step in the movement, and in all at a very early 
period. And the houses of worship of all denominations, 
from first to last, have echoed the utterances of treason and 
rebellion from the pidpit in all parts of the Soutii. 

LEADIXG CLERGYMEN IN THE REBEL ARMY. 

Many distinguished ministers, after preparing those 
under their care for the terrible work of war in defence of 
the treason they had inspired, led them to the field in per- 
son. Dr. Atkinson, President of Hampden Sidney College, 
Virginia, became Captain of a company composed mostly 
of his College students, fotight in the first battles of the 
war, was taken prisoner at Rich Mountain, Western 
Virginia, and was paroled. Dr. Dabney,* Professor in 

* At the beginning of the movement for secession, Dr. Dabney took strong grovind 
for pecace, urging his brethren farther South to desist.- In an Address to Christians 
"of the Southern country," dated, " Hampden Sidney, Nov. 24, 1860," he says: 
"Wlience, too, is the great divisive question Iwrrowed? Is it not from Chris- 
tianity ? Her sacred authority is the one which is invoked to sanctify the strife.'''' 
He here refers to that feature of Southern "Christianity," — modern views uf sla- 



MINISTERS GO SOUTH AND AID THE REBELLION. 175 

the Union Theological Seminary, Virginia, early became an 
Adjutant-General in the army, and was upon the staff of 
Stonewall Jackson. Dr. McNeill, for many years one of 
the Secretaries of the American Bible Society, and living in 
New York, left his post and returned to his former resi- 
dence in North Carolina, joined the army as a Lieutenant- 
Colonel, and was seriously wounded in a cavalry contest 
at one of the Mountain Gaps in Virginia, just before the 
battle of Gettysburg. And besides these, many other min- 
isters of distinction have had military commands in the 
rebel armies. Dr. Palmer, of New Orleans, after that city 
was occupied by the national forces, went on a mission to 
the rebel army in Northern Mississippi, and harangued the 
troops at various points ; and the testimony of one of the 
Generals in command was, that his services were worth 
more to the rebel cause than a soldiery of ten thousand 
men. We cannot vouch for the fact, but it has been fre- 
quently stated in New Orleans within the present year, and 
has been published in some of the religious journals of the 
country quite recently, that Dr. Palmer is now a Colonel in 
the rebel army. It has also been published that he is a 
chaplain. Both are probably true. 

MANY MINISTERS GO SOUTH AND AID THE REBELLION. 

While an exodus of ministers took place from the South 
immediately after the rebellion began, either leaving vol- 
untarily, from patriotic motives, or being driven out on 
account of their Union sentiments, many ministers, some 
of Northern and some of Southern birth, left their stations 
at the North and went South to give in their adhesion and 
influence to the Southern Confederacy. Among others of 

very, — as the cause of " the strife ;" and charges upon the religious portion of tho 
community a heavy responsibility. But, a little later, desjtite his earnest call to 
peace, he took the sword himself, and mingled in "the strife." 



176 EESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

distinction, are the following : Dr. John Leighton Wilson, 
leaving his secietaryship in New York, went to South 
Carolina. Dr. Hoge, of New York, colleague of Dr. Spring, 
though born and educated in Ohio, son of a former Pro- 
fessor in the Ohio University, at Athens, himself afterwards 
Professor and Pastor there, resigned his charge in New 
York and went to Virginia. Dr. Leyburn, of Philadelphia, 
and Dr. Lacy, of Frankfort, Kentucky, gave up their re- 
spective posts as Editor and Pastor and went to Virginia. 
And many other well-known cases occurred in various parts 
of the country, which many persons will remember. The 
motive for these movements, openly avowed, was the sym- 
pathy felt for the cause in which the rebel States had 
embarked. 

OTHER REBEL CLERGYMEN AT THE SOUTH. 

As our armies have advanced into the rebel territory, 
while many of the people have rejoiced in the deliverance 
thus afforded, and while in this number may possibly be 
found, here and there, a minister of the Gospel, — though 
the cases of which we have heard are remarkably few, and 
that, too, over the extensive regions of the Southwest 
where we are personally acquainted, — many clergymen 
have only availed themselves of the approach of the Union 
forces to show a deeper hatred to the Union, and have been 
kept partially quiet only by reluctant oaths of allegiance ; 
while many others have gone, in advance of the armies, 
" f^lrther into the Confederacy," or are now enjoying, in 
the loyal States, the protection of that Government whose 
overthrow they desire. Among these, are Drs. Palmer, 
Leacock, Goodrich, Mr. Hall, and others, from the single 
city of New Orleans ; Dr. Leacock, a native of Old England, 
and Di. Goodrich, a native of New England, both of whom 
refused to take the oath of allegiance, and were required 



SOUTHERN CHUKCHES ORGANIZED. 1V7 

to leave the city ; Messrs. Marshall, Lord, Rutherford, 
and one other, of four different denominations, and some 
of them of Northern birth, k'ft Vicksburg on the fldl of 
that city, and went "into the Confederacy;" besides 
others, located in Nashville and Memphis, and in many of 
the towns of Northern and Western Virginia; and, in- 
<lec(l, from almost every important city and village, 
wherever Churches were planted, have similar exits 
occurred, as the national arras have recovered the 
country. 

SOUTHERN CHURCHES ORGANIZED IN AID OF THE 
REBELLION. 

.^ Besides the influence which so many of the ministry m 
the rebel States, in the many ways mentioned, have 
exerted in aid of the rebellion, the Church as a body, and 
in its separate organizations, was early consecrated to the 
same work. 

The leading ministers, and other influential men in the 
respective Churches of all denominations, at the earliest 
moment, brought all the religious bodies of the South to 
break their connection with those of the North, — that is, 
with those religious organizations which hitherto were co- 
extensive with the Union,— changed their formularies of 
Church Polity, their Prayer-Books, and Directories for 
Worship, so as to give in their adhesion to the Government 
set up by the rebels, and thus recognize it as a lawfully 
established Civil Power. The words " United States of 
America" were blotted out, and the words " Confederate 
States of America" took their place, in the Liturgies, 
Prayers, and Standards of Faith, of every Church in the 
rebel dominions. 

It is to Ije especially noted here, that the church, as 
such, — the Church in its organic capacity as a spiritual 



178 RESPONSIBrLITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

hody^ acting through its highest corporate tribunals, and 
not its individual members in their capacity as citizens^ 
— made these radical and formal changes before the 
" Southern Confederacy" had been recognized as a lawful 
Civil Power, or admitted into the family of nations, either 
de jure or de facto^ by any Civil Power of the world. 
And not only was this done while the contest of arms, 
whose issue should decide the claim of the Confederacy to 
such consideration, was pending, but it was done at the 
earliest convenient moment after the opening of the strife; 
and, in some cases, the initiatory steps of ecclesiastical 
bodies, which culminated in this more general action, 
were taken at the very beginning ; and, in some others, 
even before the Southern "Confedernte Government" was 
formed^ or the States, out of which it was at length 
organized, had seceded. Such facts as these, in a most 
striking manner, illustrate the animus of the Church, and 
show its tremendous responsibility, not only for its sup- 
port of the rebellion, but for the lead which the Church 
took in the cause, under the guidance of those men whose 
sentiments we have given, who preached, prayed, wrote, 
labored, and finally fought, for it from the beginning. 

As an instance of the Church's course in anticipating 
the State- in its eagerness for secession, it may be noted 
for illustration, that before the secession of South Carolina, 
the Presbyterian Synod of that State, by the most delibe- 
rate and formal action, under the lead of Rev. Dr. John 
B. Adger, Professor in the Theological Seminary at 
Columbia, decided to cast in its fortunes with those of the 
State in case it should secede from the CJnion ; thus 
becoming an accessory before the fict to the crime of 
treason, and giving the influence of the Church, and 
pledging its support in encouragement of politicians, to 
commit the highest crime known to the laws. 



THE PEESBTTERIAN CHUKCH. 179 

Rev. Dr. Yerkes, in the Danville Review for September, 
1861, thus alludes to this proceeding on the part of the 
Synod of South Carolina : 

If the statement made on the floor of the Assembly (at Philadelphia 
May, 1861) is to be credited, that Synod approved in advance the act of 
secession which it was well known the State Convention would pass. 
They could not wait till the foul deed was done. They were so fondly 
anxious to baptize the cockatrice, that they could not wait till the cock's 
Q%Z hatched. They anticipated the monstrous birth, and sanctioned it 
ly a decree of the Church. 

ADDRESSES OF SOUTHERN CHURCHES SUSTAINING THE 

REBELLION. 

Besides organizing all the Southern Churches on the 
basis of supporting the rebellion, and changing their 
respective corporate titles so as to conform to the name 
of the rebel Government, the larger religious bodies at the 
South adopted formal addresses, either to their own 
people or to the Christian world at large, vindicating 
their course in sustaining the rebellion through a dis- 
ruption of the Church. 

THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Among others, the largest body of Presbyterians at the 
South put forth an address, from which we have already 
quoted, entitled, " Address of the General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of 
America, to all the Churches throughout the Earth," in 
which they speak as follows : 

It is probably known to you, that the Presbyteries and Synods in 
the Confederate States, which were formerly in connection with the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterkn Church in the United States of 
America, have renounced the jurisdiction of thai body, and dissolved the 
ties lohich hound ihtm ecclesiastically with their brethren of the North. * * * 
Commissioners, duly appointed from all the Presbyteries of these Con- 
9 



180 KESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHUECH. 

federate States, met accordingly in the city of Augusta (Georgia), on 
the 4th day of December, in the year of our Lord ]S61, and theu and 
there proceeded to constitute the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church in the Confederate States of America. The Constitution of 
the Presbyterian Church in the United States, that is to say, * * * 
were unanimously and solemnly declared to be the Constitution of the 
Church in the Confederate States, with no other change than the sub- 
stitution of "Confederate" for "United," wlierever the country is 
mentioned in the standards. The Church, therefore, in these seceded 
States, presents noio the spectacle of a sejiaratc, independent, and complete 
organization, under the stijle and title of the Presbyterian Church in the 
Confederate States of America. In thus taking its place among sister 
Churches of this and otlier countries, it seems proper that it should set 
forth the causes whicli have impelled it to separate from the Cliurch of 
the Nortli, and to indicate a general view of the course which it 
feels it incumbent upon it to pursue in the new circumstances in which 
it is placed. * * * J. political theory was, to all iatmts and purposes, 
propounded, ivhich mode sece-^sion a crime, the seceding States rebellious, 
aiid the citizens who obeyed them traitors. * * * The Presbyterians of 
these Confederate States need no apology for bo:iing to the decree of 
Providence, which, IN withdrawing their country fro-M tue Govern- 
ment OF THE UxiTED STATES, has at (he same time determined that they 
should withdraiu from the C/iurch of their fathers. 

THE PROTESTAXT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

Another instance is seen in the MC'ion of the Epi:^ co- 
pal Church, in the form of a " Pastoral Letter from the 
Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, to the 
Clergy and Laity of the Churcli in the Contederate States 
of Anifrica," issued from Augusta, Georgia, November 22, 
1862, in which the Bishops say : 

Forced by the Providence of God to separate ourselves from the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Church in the United States, — a Church with whose doc- 
trine, discipline, and worship, we are in entire harmony, and with whose 
action, up to the time of that separation, we were abundantly satisfied, — 
at a moment when civil strife had dipped its foot in blood, and cruel war 
was desolating our homes and firesides, we required a double measure 
of grace to preserve the accustomed moderation of the Church, &c. 
* * * The Constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 



CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 181 

Confederate States, under which we have been exercising our legislative 
functions, is the same as that from which we have been providentially- 
separated, &c. * * * T2^e Prayer Book we have left untouched in 
every particular, save where a change of our Civil Government and the 
formation of a new nation have made alteration essentially requisite. 
Three words comprise all the amendment which has been deemed ne- 
cessary in the present emergency. [Among several " sources of encou- 
ragement," this is given :] In our case, ive go forward with the leading 
minds of our new Republic cheering us on by their communion with us, and 
with no prejudications to overcome, save those which arise from a lack 
of acquaintance with our doctrine and worship. * * * 

Another source of encouragement is, that there has been no division 
in the Church in the Confederate States. Believing, with a wonderful 
unanimity, that the providence of God had guided our footsteps, and for His 
own inscrutable purposes had forced us into a separate organization, 
tliere has been nothing to embarrass us in the preliminary movements 
which have conducted us to our present position. * * * Many of 
the States ofthis Confederacy are missionary. * * * Hitherto has their 
scanty subsistence been eked out by the common treasury of our united 
Church. Cut off from that resource hij our political action, in which they 
have heartily acquiesced, they turn to us and pray us to do at least as 
much for them, as we have been accustomed to do for the Church from 
which they have been separated by a civil necessity. * * * It is 
likewise the duty of the Church to press upon the masters of the comi- 
try their obligation, as Christian men, so to arrange this institution 
(slavery) as not to necessitate the violation of those sacred relations which 
God has created, and which man cannot, consistently with Christian 
duty, annul. The systems of labor which prevail in Europe, and which 
are, in many respects, more severe than ours, are so arranged as to pre- 
vejit all necessity for the separation of parents and children, and of husbands 
and wives; and a very little care upon our part, would rid the system 

UPON WHICH WE ARE ABOUT TO PLANT OUR NATIONAL LIFE, of these 

unchristian features. 

CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION. 

The Young Men's Christian Association of New Orleans, 
nnder date of May 22, 1861, issued an Address "to the 
Young Men's Christian Associations of North America," 
in which they say, in their Circular Letter : 



182 EESPOXSIBILITT OF THE SOUTHEEN CHUECH. 

"We wish you to feel with us, that there is a terrible responsibility 
now resting upon us all as Christians, in this trying time of our coun- 
^j.^.^ * * * ^^Q in the South are satisfied in our judgmeuts, and 
IN OUE HEARTS [their own capitals], that the political severance of the 
Southern from the Northern States is permanent, and should be satis- 
factory. "We beheve that reason, history, and knowledge of human 
nature, will suggest the folly and futility of a war to re-establish a poli- 
tical union between the severed sections. * * * Has it not occurred 
to you, brethren, that the hand of God mat be in this political division, 
that both Governments may more eft'ectually work out His designs in 
the regeneration of the world ? While such a possibility may exist, let 
His people be careful not to war against His will. It is not pretended 
that the war is to maintain religious freedom, or extend the kingdom of 
Christ, Then, God's people should beware how they wage or encou- 
rage it. In the name of Christ and His divine teachings, we protest 
against the war which the Government at "Washington is waging 
against the territory and people of the Southern States ; and we call 
upon all the Young Men's Christian Associations, in tJie North, to unite 
with us in this solemn protest. 

THE BAPTIST CHUECH. 

The Southern Baptist Convention, a body representing 
" a constituency of six or seven hundred thousand Chris- 
tians," in session at Savannah, Georgia, May 13, 1861, 
" unanimously" adopted resohitions, in which the following 
sentences are found : 

In view of such premises, this Convention cannot keep silence. 
Recognizing the necessity that the tvhole moral influence of the people, 
in whatever capacity or organization, should be enlisted in aid of the 
rulers, who, by their suffrages, have been called to defend the endan- 
gered interests of person and property, of honor and liberty, it is 
bound to utter its voice distinctly, decidedly, emphatically, &c. * * * 
Resolved, That we most cordially approve of the formation of the Government 
of the Confederate States of America, and admire and applaud the nolle 
course of that Gor-ernment up) to the present time. * * * Resolved, 
That we most cordially tender to the President of the Confederate States, 
to his Cabinet, and to the members of the Congress now convened at 
Montgomery, the assurances of our sympathy and entire confidence. 



OTHEK CHURCHES. 183 

With them are our hearts, and our hearty co-operation. * * * Every 
principle of religion, of patriotism, and of humanity, calls upon us to 
pledge our fortunes and lives in the good work. * * * Resolved 
That these resolutions be communicated to the Congress of the Confed- 
erate States at Montgomery, with the signatures of the President and 
Secretaries of the Convention. 

METHODISTS, BAPTISTS, EPISCOPALIANS, PRESBYTEEIAXS, 
LUTHERANS, GERMAN REFORMED, AND OTHER CHURCHES. 

In April, 1863, all the leading religious bodies of the 
South, as above named, united in putting forth "An 
Address to Christians throughout the World," declar- 
ing the causes of the revolt, and intended to justify their 
course in sustaining the rebellion and the war against the 
Government of the United States. The Address is signed, 
on behalf of these various branches of the Church, by 
ninety-six ministers. It is a very long document, going 
fully into the religious and political " situation," and takes 
substantially the same views as are found in the extracts 
from other Addresses, above given. 

Among other things, they set forth that " the war is 
forced upon us — we have always desired peace ;" that " the 
Union cannot be restored ;" that the " Confederate Govern- 
ment is a fixed fact ;" and, assuming that the President's 
Proclamation of freedom to the slaves was designed to 
provoke an insurrection, and that it would result in " the 
slaughter of tens of thousands of poor, deluded insurrec- 
tionists," they thus speak further of this document, and 
what may result from it : 

The recent Proclamation of the President of the United States, seek- 
ing the emancipation of the slaves of the South, is, in our judgment, a 
suitable occasion for solemn protest on the part of tlte j^ecq^h of God 
throughout the ivorld. * * * Make it absolutely necessary for the 
public safety that the slaves be slaughtered, and he who should write 
the history of that event would record the darkest chapter of human 
woe yet written. 



18-i EE;3P0N.-iIBILITY OF THE SOtrTIIERN CIIFRCH. 

They argue at length to show the grounds on which all 
Christians in the world should unite with them in a solemn 
protest against this Proclamation, and yet, like other 
Southern writers, pretend to regard it, after all, but a 
hrutuin fidmen, a " mere political document." They 
heartily approve of and sustain the " Confederate Govern- 
ment," and tlie war it is prosecuting against the lawful 
Government of the United States, and t'ley highly com- 
pliment the Christian character of their rulers, generals, 
soldiers, and people ; and, in a word, throw the whole 
power of the Southern Church, in all its denominations, 
into the scale of treason, rebellion, and war. 

SOUTIIEEX EELIGIOUS PEESS OJST THE EEBELLIOIST. 

One of the most efficient aids of the rebellion, early and 
late, has been the religious press of the South, conducted 
by leading clergymen. We have given long citations from 
Southern quarterlies. We give a sample of the weekly 
religious press. 

AT NEW" ORLEANS. 

The New Orleans True Wittiess^ long before the Presi- 
dential election in November, 1860, warned its readers at 
the North, that, in case of Mr. Lincoln's election, there 
would be great trouble, and disunion would be the result. 
Immediately upon the issue being joined between Union- 
ists and Secessionists in New Orleans, soon after tlie elec- 
tion, it openly espoused the rebel fortunes, and from tliat 
day until New Orleans surrendered to the Union arms, it 
battled heartily in the cause. A single paragrapli from its 
issue of April 27, 1861, upon the attack made upon the 
Massachusetts troops in Baltimore, on the 19th of that 
month, will serve to show its spirit, and the means used by 
a religious journal to " fire the Southern heart." 



RELIGIOUS PEE3S AT COLUMBIA, S. C. 185 

Maryland is kindling with Southern fire, while Baltimore has stood at 
the font of hapi ismdl hlond. in solemn covenant for the Confederate States; 
and Providence ordered that this thrilling deed, this sealing ordinance, 
should be on the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, Mass., the 
memorable 19th of April. Thus the same day beheld the first blood of 
'76 and of '61 — fortunate omen of the result. 

The eilitor of that paper, v,iio is responsible for this 
transparent blasphemy, Rev. Richmond Mclnnis, took his 
seat, in May following, in the Geneial Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church, which met in Pliiladelpliia, and 
*' solemnly protested" against the terrible defilement of 
religion with politics, because the Assembly resolved to 
stand by the Government which he, through the encour- 
agement thus given to treason and rebellion, was usmg all 
his might to overthrow. 

AT COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAKOLIXA. 

Another specimen of the Southern religious press is seen 
in the SoutJier it Presbyterian ,, published at Columbia, South 
Carolina. We of course do not look for any thing else 
from that quarter but treason. Its utterances, however, 
do not outrage the solemn ordinances of religion, when 
commending a cowardly attack upon the country's gallant 
defenders. On the loth of December, 1860, when as yet 
no State had seceded, it thus speaks of the contemplated 
Convention of South Carolina : 

It is well known that the members of the Convention have been 
elected with Oietinderstanding and expectation that they will dissolve the 
relations of South Carolina with the Federal Union, immediately and 
unconditionally. This is a foregone conclusion in South Carolina. It is 
a matter for devout thankfulness, that the Convention wiU embody the 
very highest wisdom and character of the State ; private gentlemen, 
judges of her highest legal tribunals, and «u'/?.isfe9'.?o/);/2e G^a^pf-Z. * * * 
Nothing, at preseni, assumes any definite shape, except the resolve in 
South Carolina, in the face of all obloquy, and ridicule, and menaces, of 
all the wrath and contempt of tlios.3 who alternately curse and jeer her, 



186 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

to assert her independence. Before we issue another number of this paper 
the deed may be done — the Union may be dissolved — we may have 
ceased to be in the United States. 

Thus, we have another instance in which the religions 
press, controlled by the clergy, loent ahead of any acts o 
the civil authority, in " aiding and abetting" the rebellion. 
In the same issue, this paper, in an article on " Be not de- 
ceived," and in still another, in reply to a " Boston corre- 
spondent," thus speaks of the cause of the " contest" upon 
which the " foregone conclusion" is given : 

We entreat our readers to let nothing mislead them on this point. 
The real contest now in hand between the North and South, is for the 
preservation or destruction of slavery. * * * "V\'e ask our corre- 
spondent, we ask all or any of the sober men of the North, if it is not 
the almost unanimous resolution of the Northern people to forbid the 
EXTENSION OF SLAVERY ? We beheve it is ; and the Southern people, for 
a thousand reasons, must regard that as a wrong that cannot be sub- 
mitted TO. 

AT RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 

The Central Freshytei^ian^ of Richmond, Virginia, edited 
or mainly controlled at the time by two clergymen of 
Northern birth, and Pastors of large Churches in Rich- 
mond, Dr. Moore, a native of Pennsylvania, and Dr. M. D. 
Hoge, a native of Ohio, in connection with Rev. Wm. 
Brown, spoke as follows, before the secession of Virginia, 
after the attack upon Fort Sumter : 

We are henceforth a divided nation. We do not now search for the 
causes, or the place of blame. The stupendous fact is before us, "like 
the great mountains" of God, deep-rooted and high — plain to the eye of 
the whole world and immovable. TTe are a separate people. The 
answer of the President at Washington to our commissioners, and his 
proclamation calling for an armed force of seventy-five thousand men to 
"execute the laws," — that is, to subjugate the seven seceding States, — 
is an end of the matter. Separation is unavoidable. * * * xho 



RELIGIOUS PEESS AT FAYETTE VILLE, N. C. 187 

position of Virginia, so far as the act of her Convention can fix it, will 
soon be known. It is not our place to assume any thing in anticipation. 
* * * Their determination will be such as may give reason to 
every member of our Commonwealth for saying, in the face of the 
world, and of Heaven itself, " it is right." Its support will then he 
accepted as a religious trust. 

These modest gentlemen say, " It is not our place to 
assume any thing in anticipation y" and yet they both as- 
sume and anticipate a large amount that is political, for a 
religious journal. They openly declai-e for separation ; 
"assume" to know, "in anticipation," that the action of 
the Convention will be " right" before " every" Virginian, 
and before " Heaven itself;" and all this, when the Con- 
vention 'gave^Ae people of the State some forty days to 
think upon the matter, before they should be called to vote 
upon the Ordinance of Secession. How valiantly these 
" Northern ministers with Southern principles," — who 
have constantly protested against " mixing politics and 
religion," — can fight with religions weapons on the arena 
of politics, when they become leaders of the people, and 
declare their will forty days before they are called on to 
express it, and seal it " in anticipation" with the signet of 
" Heaven !" 

AT FAYETTEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA. 

So, also, the North Carolina Presbyterian, with no more 
modesty than the Virginian, and likewise before that State 
seceded, while disclaiming to " assume," does yet declare, 
what should be done, as folio v,^s : 

What, then, shall Xorth Carolina do? Where does she stand? On 
which side? Without assuming to speak for others, though we doubt- 
less reflect the opinious of four-fifths of the clergy and membership of 
the Southern Presbyterian Church, we say that the South should unite for \ 
the sake of the South — for the sake of peace, humanity, and religion — of 
our soil, our honor, and our slaves ; and that all the slave States 
should make com'non cause in this hour of their extremity. 
9* 



188 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOrTHEEN CHUKCH. 

And so it was with the conductors of the religious press 
all over the South, of every denomination which had its 
organs. They were among the early cham|)ions of treason 
and rebellion, urging resistance to the Government " in 
anticipation" of Conventions and votes of the people ; and 
thus becoming open leaders, and *' assuming" momentous 
responsibilities. 

EDUCATIOISr IN AID OF THE KEBELLION". 

Another item in illustration of our subject, relates to the 
efforts in behalf of Education in the South, on a footingr 
which should secure its independence of Northern Colleges 
and Universities^ and strike out a curriculuTn within which 
should be safely ensconced all the interests of the " pecu- 
liar institution." 

The world is familiar with the fact, that for many years 
the South has attempted to provide itself with an expur- 
gated literature ; that nothing in the shape of books and 
periodicals, from the North or from across the Atlantic, 
suited its tastes ; that nothing of this sort was deemed 
" safe" or " sound," from a Child's Primer up to a work 
on Moral Philosophy ; and as for teachers of both sexes, 
for whom it was largely dependent on the North, and most 
commonly upon New England, they could "not be borne 
with much longer, even though Southern children should 
have to grow up in ignorance." Their progress in this 
direction was small, though of late years something was 
accomplished. As they supposed the time nearly ripe for 
national disruption, a stimulus was given to their efforts. 

We aim here only to notice one recent movement of a 
different kind. The South has been constantly increasing 
the number of its Colleges, and some of them are of a high 
character. But since the Presidential election of 1S5G, a 
bold scheme for a Southern University of magnific-cnt pro- 



GREAT SOUTHERN UXIYEESITY. 189 

portions was projected, which is worthy of a passing con- 
sideration. Its design will be seen to have been to " con- 
serve and perpetuate" the educational interests of the South 
in behalf of Slavery. 

GREAT SOUTHERX UXIVERSITY. 

The plan is developed in De Bote's Remew^ a monthly, 
issued in Xew Orleans, which has been a leading organ 
of disunion, and one of the stoutest champions for per- 
petual slavery. The project is treated in several numbers, 
and seems to have occupied the attention of leading minds 
in Church and State for several years. In the number 
for November, 1857, is one of a series of articles advo- 
cating the plan, written by a gentleman of Georgia. It 
is entitled, " Central Southern University : Political and 
Educational Necessity for its Establishment." The editor 
prefaces the article, representing the author as saying : 

That the Southern people, through individual, municipal, and State 
action, comprising all denominations, orthodox and heterodox, Jew and 
Gentile, should move with one accord to secure, for our political as well 
as intdlectual redemption and development^ at some advantageous point, 
a vast Central University, towards which should radiate, to be after- 
wards condensed, intensified, and reflected, the emanations of our 
municipal and State Schools, Academies, and Colleges. 

DISUNION. FIGHTING ilEN TO BE EDUCATED. 

The article presents the subject in four parts. The fol- 
lowing sentences are taken from the first, illustrating the 
" necessity" for such an institution, and the grounds on 
which it rests : 

The opinion that it is vitally importayit to the interests and general 
welfare of the South, for the slaveholding States to endow and organize 
as speedily as possible a great Central Southern University, seems to 
be rapidly gaining ground. * * * That there does exist a j:)6Zf!!.caZ 
necessity for the establishment of an institution of learning- of the 



190 KESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

character alluded to, an institution around which shall cluster the 
hopes and the pride of the South, the teachings of which shall be thoroughly 
Southern, one jjledged to the defence and perpetuation of that form of 
civilization peculiar to the slaveholding States, will not, perhaps, be ques- 
tioned, although some may entertain doubts as to the pressure of that 
necessity. * * * The dhficulty between the South and the North 
can never arrive at a peaceable settlement. The supreme and ultimate 
arbiter in the dispute now pending between them, must be the sword. 
To that complexion it must come at last. The first step then which the 
South should take in preparing for the great contest ahead of her, is to 
secure harmony at home. * * * The safety of the South, the 
integrity of the South, not the permanence of the Union, should be re- 
garded as the "paramount political good." No true Southerner, no 
loyal son of the South, can possibly desire the continuance of the Union 
as it is. * * * The University of Virginia is not sufficiently Southern, 
sufficiently central, sufficiently cotionized, to become the great educa- 
tional centre of the South. * * * According to the census of 1850, 
the number of white inhabitants of the Southern States is 6,113,308. 
The number of fighting men is usually estimated at about one-fifth of 
the population. That gives 1,222,661 fighting men. Of these, at least 
one-fourth are of an age suitable for going to College. * * * The 
establishment of the University has been proposed as a measure cei'tain 
to produce, by its working, unity and concord of action on the part of 
the slaveholding States. The young men of the South will then 
assemble and drink pure and invigorating draughts from unpolluted 
fountains. They will meet together as brethren, and be educated in 
one common political faith, at one common alma mater. 

The writer urges, in this article, the necessity of action, 
on the farther ground that " each of two denominations 
of Christians at the South proposes to estahUsh a Central 
Southern University," — the Methodist Episcopal South, 
and the Protestant Episcopal, — for the same general ends, 
of promoting the special interests of the South ; and lie 
thinks other denominations may follow suit, and hence the 
system may lack the power which one institution of his 
type would have for making " thorough Southerners." 
In this same number of De Boir^ is found a lvi?f notice 



PKOFESSORSHIP ON PATRIOTISM. 191 

of a pamphlet issued by the Bishops of the Episcopal 
Church at the South, exhibiting a plan for a "" Southern 
Episcopal University ;" one of the cases referred to. 
This institution was not to go into operation until 
$500,000 liad been subscribed. The agreenient entered 
into by the Southern Bishops and several distinguished 
laymen, all of whose names are given in De Bow, Avas 
" signed at Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Ten- 
nessee, the sixth day of July, A. D. 1857." 

ENDOWMENT, FIVE OR TEN MILLIONS. 

In the number of De Bow for December, 1857, the 
Georgian further develops his plan for a great " Central 
Southern University," from which we learn something of 
its grand proportions : 

A total, then, of five millions is supposed to be suflacieut, both to 
estabhsh the University, and to endow it in perpetuity. This is not a 
very large sum ; and even should it be advisable or necessary to double 
the amount, and make it ten millions^ tliat would be a very small sum 
to be paid by fourteen sovereign States, for the innumerable blessings 
and advantages which are sure to result from it. * * * The 
method which I suggest for raising the five millions of dollars, is to 
levy a tax on population, a tax on area, and a tax on property. 

PROFESSORSHIP ON PATRIOTISM. 

The writer then presents at length his programme for 
" professorships," of which he proposes forty-three, num- 
bered in order. The eighth is devoted to "Patriotism," 
on which the writer thus descants : 

The duty of the incumbent of this professorship should be, to instil 
into the minds and hearts of his pupils a imre and undivided love of 
country; to vindicate the domestic institutions of the South; and to hold 
tliem up as worthy of their hearty support, their love and admiration. lie 
should be a man of commanding presence, of fervid elotiuence, of un- 
doubted integrity, of extensive erudition, great in historic lore, a 
THOROUGH Southerner, 



192 KESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 
EPISCOPAL UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH. 

In the May number of De Borons jReview for 1859, we 
iiiul the ''Address of the Commissioners to the people of 
the Southern States," in behalf of the Episcopal University 
before spoken of, which had now taken the name of "The 
University of the South." This Address is dated, "New 
Orleans, February 24, 1859." These Commissioners are 
Leonidas Polk and Stephen Elliott, Bishops respectively 
of the Dioceses of Louisiana and Georgia, by whom, on 
behalf of the other Bishops and the Trustees, the Address 
is signed. They set forth the plans of the institution. 
It is to subserve the interests of slavery and Southern 
independence. They speak of their resources and propects 
thus: "Nine thousand acres of land have been given us 
by the Sevvanee Coal Company, and by the citizens of 
Franklin county, Tennessee." " We have bound our- 
selves not to take a single step, until we have received 
obligations to the amount of $500,000, bearing interest, as 
the lowest point at which we should commence." They 
also say that '' one million of dollars is much less than we 
hope to raise," and that this sum " should be subscribed 
for its endowment." They say further : " Thirty persons 
have given us, within a few weeks, over $200,000." At 
length, the minimum, $500,000, having been secured, their 
location was chosen on one of those lofty mountains near 
Chattanooga, where the corner-stone was laid, with great 
pomp and ceremony, in the presence of the Bishops and a 
great multitude. 

But alas! for all human calculations! Before the in- 
stitution had accomplished its great mission of instructing 
the young men of the South in the peculiar notions of 
" Patriotism" developed in that projected " professorship," 
and before even tlie main building had risen on that ample 



MAJOPv-GENEEAL HILL AS AX EDUCATOE. 193 

conier-stone, lessons of genuine /patriotism were tanght on 
tiuit very spot. The Union army of the Cumberland, 
under Rosecrans, there fought and won a battle for 
liberty^ enriching with the best blood of an heroic soldiery 
the soil consecrated with religious rites to slavery. The 
soldiers occupied for barracks the surrounding buildings, 
and that corner-stone was blown to fragments by Union 
powder, no more to be an " aid and comfort" to treason. 
We sincerely trust, that, by the grace of God, the armies 
of Union and of Liberty may shiver to atoms, with equal 
ease, in His own good time, that other " corner-stone" on 
which the rebel Vice-President boasts that the rebel 
" nation" is built. 

These were some of the schemes, — in actual operation 
and projected, — by which all the appliances of Education, 
in its highest gra<les and most systematic and cnlai-oed 
plans, were to aid the press, the pulpit, and the politicians, 
in training up a race of " Southrons" to regard human 
slavery as " worthy of their hearty support, their love and 
admiration," under the name of " Patriotism," while tliey 
should be taught to give other illustrations of that virtue 
by preparing to attack and plotting to overthrow that 
Government which had never wronged them, which the 
South had most commonly controlled, and whose founda- 
tions were laid in the blood of patriots of all sections of 
the Union. 

REBEL MAJOR-GENERAL HILL AS AN EDUCATOR. 

As a fitting conclusion to our notice of the schemes for 
"peculiar" education at the South to foster the "peculiar 
institution," we present Major-General D. H. Hill, of the 
rebel army, in the character of an educator. He is an 
Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and was a member of 
its General Assembly which met at Indianapolis, Indiana, 



194 KESPONSIBILITT OF THE SOUTHERN CHUKCH. 

in May, 1859. He is a native of South Carolina, was 
educated for the army at West Point, fought under Gen- 
eral Scott in the Mexican War, nnd rose to the rank of 
Major. He resigned his commission and entered on the 
duties of civil life; first, becoming a Professor of Mathe- 
matics in Davidson College, ISTorth Carolina, and after- 
wards, in 1859, taking the ofiice of Principal of the 
North Carolina Military Institute, at Charlotte. In this 
post, if we are rightly informed, he remained until the 
occurrence of the rebellion, into which he threw his whole 
soul, and finally rose to the rank of Major-General. 

HIS HATRED OF THE NORTH. 

A writer who appears to understand and appreciate his 
character, thus speaks of him : 

General Ilill is a South Carolinian in all his feelings, principles, and 
prejudices, and doubtless rejoices that he is sucli. Ho has nursed his 
hatred to the North to such a degree, that it has become as near to a 
passion as his cold nature permits. In the year 1860, he delivered a 
lecture at several places in North Carolina, in which he complained 
bitterly of the injustice which had been done to the South by the North- 
ern historians of the Eevolutionary War; and in which he asserted, iu 
substance, tliat all the battles gained in the Kevolution by Northern 
troops were a series of "Yankee tricks," and that the real, hard, open 
fighting had been done by the South. So inveterate is this enmity 
to Northern men and the Northern character in General Hill, that it 
crops out in unexpected places, and in most remarkable ways. 

SECESSION TAUGHT BY ALGEBRA. 

This writer goes on to declare of General Hill that 
which reveals the ingenuity of his intellect, the bitterness 
of his heart, and his zeal as an educator, in training up 
the young at the South to hate the Xorthern people, and 
preparing them for the work of rebellion in which they are 
now engaged. He thus continues : 



SPECIMEN OF ALGEBRAIC PROBLEMS. 195 

It would puzzle the ingenuity of most men to import sectional feel- 
ings and prejudices into the neutral region of pure mathematics ; but 
General Hill has succeeded in conveying covert sneers by algebraical 
symbols, and insinuating disparagement through mathematical prob- 
lems. In 1857 he published a text-book, called' the "Elements of 
Algebra," of which Thomas Jonathan Jackson (tlie famous Rebel Gen- 
eral, "Stonewall," another Elder in tlie Presbyterian Church), then 
Professor of Xatural and Experimental Philosophy in the Virginia Mili- 
tary Institute, said, in a formal recommendation, tliat he regarded it as 
" superior to any other work with which I am acquainted on the same 
branch of science.'" 

SPECIMEX OF ALGEBRAIC PROBLEMS. 

Here are a few examples of the manner in which Gen- 
eral Hill taught "the young idea how to shoot," of which 
the present rebellion furnishes the best illustration tliat 
bis teaching was not in vain : 

A Yankee mixes a certain number of wooden nutmegs, which cost 
him one-fourth of a cent apiece, with real nutmegs worth four cents 
apiece, and sells tlie whole as.sortment for $44, and gains $3 T5 by the 
fraud. How many wooden nutmegs were there? Again: At the Wo- 
man's Rights Convention, held at Syracuse, New York, composed of 
150 delegates, the old maids, childless wives, and bedlamites, were to 
each other as the numbers, 5, 7, and 3. How many were tliere of each 
class ? Again ; A gentleman in Richmond expressed a willingness to 
liberate his slave, valued at $1,000, upon the receipt of that sum from 
charitable persons, lie received contributions from twenty-four per- 
sons, and of these there were fourteen-nineteenths the fewer from the 
North than from the South, and the average donation of the former 
was four-tifths the smaller than that of the latter. What was the 
entire amount given by the latter? Again: The year in which the 
Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut sent treasonable messages 
to their respective Legislatures is expressed by 4 digits. The square 
root of the sum of the first and second is equal to 3 ; the square 
root of the product of the second and fourth, is equal to 4; the first is 
equal to the third, and is one-half of the fourth. Required the year. 
Again: The field of battle at Buena Yista is six and a half miles from 
Saltillo. Two Indiana volunteers ran away from the field of battle at 
the same time; one ran half a mile per hour faster than the other, 



196 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHEKX CHUECII. 

and reached Saltillo five minutes and fifty-four and sLx-elevenths seconds 
sooner than the other. Required, their respective rates of travel. 

Who does not perceive that treason and rebellion, and 
hatred and contempt for the North, would inevitably re- 
sult from such appliances of education, under the direction 
of leading: reHorious men ? Thev set themselves soberly 
at work to prepare for this horrid business, and were 
training the young of both sexes for it, with a zeal and 
ingenuity which were truly Satanic* 

AID OF THE CHURCH INDISPENSABLE TO THE REBELLION. 

We have now given sufficient proof, — to which, indeed, 
much more might be adile.l, — to show that the Southern 
Church, through its leaders, has a very large share of re- 
sponsibility to shoulder for stirring up in the beginning, 
and for urging on with zeal and energy through every 
stage of its progress, the fiendish work of treason and re- 
bellion, and in all possible modes of action which the case 
admitted ; in the pulpit and through the press, writing fur 
it, preaching for it, praying for it, and lighting for it; be- 
coming leaders in all this work, entering upon it earliest, 
and drawing the better and more influential classes of 
society along with them. 

* Here is an example of what was in progress at the South to instil the same 
siuiit into the female mind of its leading families. The following is from an adver- 
tisement of the widely-known Nashville Female Academy, under the Pwev. C. D. 
Elliott, of the Methodist Ejiiscopal Church, who is a native of Hamilton, Ohio: 
" Teacukks.— We employ a full Faculty of Teachers in all departments. This we 
can do safdy, since our teachers, being Southern, are willing to invest their labor in 
the cause of the South, and to receive pay according to the number of pupils pre- 
sent. The Academy will continue to wage war,— uncompromising and unrelenting. 
— against all Yankee teachers, teachings, tricks, isms and ideas. We hojjc, in one 
more year, to be able to say that we do not use a single book written or published, 
North of Mason and Dixon's line." In reuard to Rev. Mr. Elliott, the Principal, a 
Nashville writer says: "With most indefatigable industry he has labored to fill the 
tender hearts of little girls with hatred of Northerners, telling them in precept 
upon precept, here a little and there a little, that the Yankees were thirsty for 
blood." 



CHURCH AID ACKNOWLEDGED BY STATESMEX. 197 

There is the clearest testimony to show that Southern 
statesmen deemed this aid of the clergy invaluable, indeed 
ESSENTIAL, going SO far as to say that were it not for the 
clergy leading on the Church, politicians could not have 
succeeded in arousing the masses of the people, could not 
have made a successful beginning in the work. We have 
already instanced the failure of Mr. Toombs in the charac- 
ter of a missionary, and the aid rendered him by Dr. 
Palmer. An item of evidence on this point, which is broad 
in its application, may be obtained from a single source. 

THIS AID ACKNOWLEDGED BY STATESMEN. 

In the SoutJiern Presbyterian^ under date of April 20, 
1861, the indispensable aid rendered by the Southern 
Church and cleigy is argued. A communication apj)ear8 
from Macon, Georgia, entitled "Tiie Church and the Con- 
federate States of America." The editor introduces the 
writer to his readers thus : "Many of them will recognize 
it as written by a genilemin occupying a high civil posi- 
tion in the Confederacy, and an Elder in the Presbyterian 
Church." This liigh civilian and Elder is supposed to be 
Thomas R. R. Cobb, a General in the rebel army ;ifier- 
wards, who was killed in battle near Fredericksburg, 
Virginia, in December, 18G2. In this article, he says : 

This revolution has been accomplished mainly by the Ciiurches 
I do not undervalue the name, and position, and ability of politicians; 
still I am sure that our success is cliieflij attributable to the support 
which they derived from the co-operation of the moral sentiment of the 
country. Without that, embodying, as it obviously did, the will of God, 
the enterprise ivould have been A failure. As a mere fact, it is already 
historical, that the Christian community sustained it with remarkable unani- 
mity. * * * In times like these upon which we have fallen, the 
opinion of the Church upon political questions, when unanimously and 
freely declared, is far more potent tlian the tricks of the demagogue, 
or the eloquence of the renowned orator, or the oracular instructions of 



198 llESPOXSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHUKCH. 

the retired sage. The reason is, that our Church, being sound, has tlie 
confidence of the irreligious world Let the Clmrcli knoiv this, dud 
realize her strength. She should not noiu abandon her own grand 
CREATION. She should not leave the creature of her prayers and labors 
to the contingencies of the times, or the tender mercies of less con- 
scientious patriots. She should consummate what she has begun. 

A statesman's view indorsed. 

Upon the position and influence of the Southern Church 
in aid of the rebel cause, as set forth in the foreo-oino- 
article, tlie editor, Rev. A. A. Porter, writes his indorse- 
ment, as follows : 

We have no fears but that the Christian people of the land will prove 
faithful to their country, in this day of trial, to the very last. As our 
correspondent suggests, this present revolution is the result of their up- 
rising. Much as is due to many of our sagacious and gifted politicians, 
they could effect nothing until the religious union of the ^'orlh and South 
was dissolved, nor until they received the m'}ral supjjort and co-operation 
of Southern Christians. 

This is quite to tlie point. The men who wTite thus, — 
one an Elder of the Presbyterian Church, holding a high 
office in the Rebel Government, and the other a mini.'-ter, 
and an editor on the mount of observation, — know whereof 
they aflirm. The status of the Southern Church and clergy 
is fixed, and it is acknowledged by their leading politicians ; 
and their testimony is, that, Avithout the early influence 
and powerful moral co-operation of the Church with the 
leading politicians, the w^ork of treason and foul rebellion 
"would have been a failure." The Southern Church 
may thus look upon " her own grand creation." As 
they glory in what they have done, we leave them to enjoy 
the spectacle. 

It is perceived from this, that the charge which we 
bring against the Southern Church, of being chiefly respon- 
sible for the rebellion, is not a Northern flibrication. 



THE CHURCH LED THE POLITICIANS. 199 



THE CHURCH LED THE POLITICIAXS. 

An iraportant fact in an earlier number of the Southern 
Presbyterian, February 23, 1861, is stated in an article on 
"Northern Misconception," as follows : 

They (the Northern people) persist in believing this universal up- 
heaving, this unanimous and determined protest, is a mere matter of 
politics, the movement of a few hot-headed and ambitious men ; where- 
as, nothing is so well known among us as that the people have driven, not 
been led by, the politicians; and by their own calm, great voice, have 
pressed them on to carry out their will. 

Admitting the correctness of this, then, who have 
"driven" or "led" the people? The people never act 
without leaders; the case never was known, since time 
began, in a revohition, religious or political, or any 
other great movement ; not even in a mob. The ])eople 
always have leaders. If they were not "led" by the 
"politicians," no doubt they had the clergy for their lead- 
ers or " drivers." Their own statesmen so declare. We 
are willing to leave it there. 

This view of the case is still further insisted on, and the 
opposite view resented as an insult, in an article in the 
same paper, of March 10, 1861. In replying to a Northern 
paper, the editor says : 

"Will he still refuse to believe that the Churches of all denominations and 
the State are at one on the questions involved? that, as Christian 
citizens, the whole heart of ministers and people is in this matter ? 
* * * And for the Churches of the lohole South, of every denomina- 
tion, we indignantly deny that they have been, are now, or ever will be, 
"the humble and obedient servants of politicians.^^ No honest man, who 
knows any thing of Southern Churches, will assert it of them. It is 
utterly false. He finds " ministers of the South urging political men to 
uncompromising resistance." Just now it was politicians leading min- 
isters I Yes I And so long as we have tongue or pen to use, will loe 
urge, as a duty to God and man, resistance to this unholy crusade against 
what we believe God's truth, right, duty, honor, and interest. 



200 BESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHUKCH. 



THE PROOF COXCLUSIYE. 

Thus it appears that this influential religious journal, 
located at the capital of South Carolina, doth "indignantly 
deny" the charge, as a gross slander upon their cliaracter, 
that the clergy of tlie South were the " servants of politi- 
cians" in the cause of rebellion; and it denies this, further- 
more, "for the Churches of the whole South, of every 
denomination ;" and it undoubtedly is well qualilied to 
make the denial, from its ample knowledge in the premises. 
But when the counter-charge is made, that the clergy led 
the politicians, " urging political men to uncompromisino* 
resistance" to the United States Government, it does not 
deny the soft impeachment; but it says, "Yes!" — we did 
do it — " and so long as we have tongue or pen to use," we 
will continue the good work! 

Well, — we must leave it so. If they make up such a 
record for themselves, and if the pohtieians in the highest 
places in the " Confederate Government" agree to it, as 
M-e have seen they do, then the clergy of the South, " of 
every denomination," have a most fearful responsibility 
upon them for the honors of this rebellion ; a responsibility 
claimed, gloried in, and of which they are so jealous that 
they will not divide it with politicians. Be it so ; and let 
God reward them " according to their works." 

This, be it observed, was the language used a month 
before the crisis brought on by the attack on Fort Sumter. 
There can be no doubt that nothing beyond the simple 
truth is stated in the foregoing extracts. It would have 
been impossible for the political demagogues of the rebel 
States to carry the ^w.ople with them into rebellion, had 
not THE Church, at the earliest moment, under her leaders, 
given to it of " her strength ;" and even after the work had 
been thus begun, " the enterprise would have been a fail- 



LOYAL CLERGYMEN IN THE BORDER STATES. 201 

ure," and tliat soon, had not the Church stood by the ob- 
ject of " her own grand creation." 

The power, and of consequence the responsibility, of the 
Church of the South in aid of the rebelUon, may be ilkis- 
trated by contrast, and that in two respects; by mention- 
ing what is well known concerning an early period of the 
strife in some of the loyal Border States, and by noting 
the action of the larger religious bodies all over the loyal 
States. 

LOYAL CLERGYMEN IN THE BORDER STATES. 

As illustrating the first point, take the case of Kentucky. 
What would have been its condition had all its leading 
clergymen, as in the rebel States, taken open ground for 
the rebellion at the beginning of the contest? Does any 
one suppose, in such case, that the State would not have 
been cariied into secession, so far as the action of its own 
people is concerned ? On the other hand, take the case as 
it is. Does any one doubt that lending clergymen of the 
State, taking open and public ground for the Union, 
through the press and hi other ways, at the earliest and 
most critical period, contributed most essentially to form 
the public sentiment of the more influential classes of the 
peoi)le, to preserve the State to the Union, and to save its 
fair fields Irom becoming, far more than they have been, the 
scene of the most bloody and suicidal carnage ? 

It is stating no more than what is believed throughout 
the country, as we have often heard expressed, that, in 
addition to the valuable aid rendered by others, Kentucky's 
adherence to the Union is due to the influence of Dr. 
liobert J. Bieckinridge more than to that of any other 
man in the State ; and we only repeat what we have many 
times heard stated by citizens of Kentucky, that had he 
taken the course of the Thorn wells and Palmers of the 



202 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 

South at that early day, the power he would have wielded 
in tlie Church and among the leading politicians of the 
State would have carried Kentucky out by an act of 
secession, and thus have made her territory the great eariy 
battle-ground of the West. We quite as conhdently be- 
lieve, that, had the distinguished ministers of the South 
taken a determined stand against secession, they would 
have been equally successful. It is but stating what their 
own politicians declare.* 

LOYALTY OF NORTHERN CHURCHES. — THEIR DUTY. 

The Other point is illustrated in the action of the reli- 
gious bodies in the two sections of the country. They 
have given, in their influence over the people, the most 
powerful aid to the respective Governments. Those in 
the North could, in conscience and before God, do nothing 
less. They did but their duty. We say nothing here 

* We find the views wc have taken concerning the responsibility of the Southern 
Chnrcli and the Southern Clergy, fully sustained by the Rev. Dr. George Junkin, in 
his work entitled "Political Fallacies." Dr. Junkin was, at the beginning of the 
rebellion, President of Washington College, at Lexington, in the Valley of Virginia, 
and, from his position and enlarged acquaintance, is a most competent witness. lie 
aays: "These Southern Presbyterians are either laughing at your simplicity or 
pitying your stupiditj'. For, first, it is notorious that they held the controlling 
power in their hands. I could name half a dozen of Presbyterian ministers who 
could have arrested the secession, if they had seen fit. Notorioudy, the Presby- 
terian ministers of the South v^ere the leading spirits of the rebellion. It could 
not have been istarted xcithout thmx. That stupendous victory, won by ten thou- 
sand of the unconquerable chivalry, over Robert Anderson and his seventy-two half- 
starved soldiers, after thirty-six hours of heavy cannonading, could ne-%t>r have been 
achieved but for the encouraging shouts of Kev. James H. Thornwell, D. D., and 
Eev. Benjamin M. Palmer, D. D. But secondly, even in the Border States, the 
Presbyterian ministers alone, if they had had a moiety of the heroic martyr spirit 
of Robert J. Breckinridge, could have shut up the sluices of treason and turned the 
battle from tJie gates. All that was needed was to present a solid front, and the 
demon spirit would have cowered before them and slunk back to his own den. 
Had my beloved brother, Dr. White, and his twelve Union elders, stood firmly to- 
gether, all the demons of pandemonium, and Charleston, too, could not have driven 
them from Rockbridge county, .ind forced treason and rebellion on a people who had 
voted more than ten to one in favor of the Union candidates for the (Virginia State) 
Convention." 



LOYALTY OF NORTHERX CHUKCHES. 203 

upon the character and details of the " delirerances " and 
" resohitions" adopted. Some of them, in some branches 
of the Chui'ch, may have points of special faultiness. We 
now speak only of the one principle running through them 
all, of allegiance to the Government. To express that 
unequivocally, at such a time of civil war, was tlieir mani- 
fest duty; for the same civil obligations rest upon the 
Church, in her corporate or organic capacity, as rest upon 
any other organizations of men, or upon the individual 
citizen, so far as they may apply to each respectively, 
lliese religious bodies, as such, are under civil protection, 
wliich the Government is bound to render ; they enjoy 
immunities which the civil authorities grant and guard; 
they hold property under the laws of the land ; their char- 
ters and franchises are from the State ; they have the same 
rights and privileges at law and in equity which other cor- 
porations enjoy ; an<l in other ways, in their organic cha- 
racter, do they stand related to the Government. 

By virtue of their public organization, and of their rela- 
tions to the civil power, these religious bodies wield a vast 
influence over society, and especially over its more influen- 
tial classes. By virtue of these things, they owe, in their 
organic charncter, full allegiance to the civil authority. 
Every principle of the Word of God, of human law, of 
common sense, and every principle in any way entering 
into the welfare of society, shows this beyond dispute. 
It is, therefore, their manifest duty, in their organic char- 
acter as public bodies^ when the land is rent and torn by 
foul rebellion, striving to overthrow the Government, for- 
mally to express their allegiance to the Government before 
all men. If it be said that this \& political action, we meet 
it with a denial. It is action which God enjoins as a duty 
of relig-ion ; and should be recognized among the demands 
of conscience. 

10 



204 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH. 



DUTY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH THE SAME. 

On the other hand, it was equally the duty of the Church 
in the South to stand by the Government in opposition to 
rebellion. Had slie done this, it is the testimony of South- 
ern politicians that they could not have succeeded in 
initiating civil war. But be this as it may, it was equally 
her duty. 

What rufht had tlie Presbyterian Church in the rebel 
States, for example, in defiance of her civil and religious 
obligations, to give in her adhesion, organically, to a 
rebellious Power styled the " Confederate States of Amer- 
ica," at the earliest stage of the rebellion? A time might 
possibly co:ne when it would be right for lier to acknowl- 
edge such a Government c/e/ac'^o. But that time had not 
arrived when her leading men took their earliest step. 
They bounded into the arena at the ve y beginning of the 
civil strife. Some of them, in their public utterances, went 
ahead of the politicians around them ; and some ecclesi- 
astical bodies did the same. 

Was this a proper spectac-le to be presented by the 
Church of God? It is, rather, lier decent missicn to ad- 
here to "the powers" which God lias placed over her, an 1 
when the issues of a bloody rebellion shall have been de- 
termined^ then to acquiesce in the result. The case is not 
altered, even when, as in the South, the fires of revolution 
were burning around or even wiiliin her. She is still to 
stand to her civil as well as to her religious obligations, 
and abide the issue. 

But this, it may be said, \vould have subjected her to 
persecution, and brought her ministers to the halter. 
Well — what of that? May we abandon duty for safety? 
Are we not to suffer^ as well as cZo, the will of God ? We 
do not sui)pose we should have been, personally, more 



DUTY OF THE SOUTHERN CHURCH THE SAME. 205 

ready for Southern martyrdom tlian other people, but that 
cantiot in the least affect the vital principle here at stake. 
It is merely a question whether allegiance to the civil 
authority is a duty of the Church. If that be decided 
affirmatively, as it clearly must be, then it is as incumbent 
on the Church to discharge that duty as any other; and 
if God in His providence call her to suffer, it is as much 
her duty to suffer in defence of her civil rights and in the 
discharge of her civil obligations as for any others, for 
they are all founded on and enforced by the highest re- 
liofious sanctions. 

This path of duty is, too, after all, the only path of 
safety ; for if it shall ever come to a practical question of 
halters, it may be found that they can be used by the law- 
ful Government of the Union as well as by the abortive 
Government of the rebellion. And \\ hen the future Church 
histoi ian shall record the sufferincrs for riirhteousness' sake 
endured in this war, lie will give a high place in tiie niche 
of fame to those ministers of the South, though few in 
number, who have been incarcerated and hung because 
they would not bow their necks to treason; while the 
memory of those who have led the Church astray, and 
thus prepared an easier triumph for political demagogues, 
and a more ready altar for the sacrifice of thousands of 
their countrymen, will go down to posterity with an in- 
supportable load of infamy. 

If, for the sake of present safety and peace, the Church 
may even quietly acquiesce in all the horrid work of this 
rebellion, without raising her voice in remonstrance to 
even her own members who are giving all their energies 
to its support, then there is no duty of Scripture which 
she may not neglect, and no f^ict which gives glory to her 
past history which she may not ignore. Had the Southern 
Church taken and maintained a righteous and heroic stand, 



206 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE SOUTHEKN" CHURCH. 

and been subjected to persecution therefor, she would have 
come out of the furnace with no such odious smell upon 
her garments as must now attach to them, for leaping into 
the front rank of the hordes of treason, winning the earli- 
est and highest honors in its apologetic literature, and 
leading on its armed legions to battle. We envy not the 
fame which these men will have in the opinion of mankind, 
nor the reward which will be meted out to them in the 
just judgment of God! 



CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 20t 



CHAPTER VI. 

CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IX LOYAL STATES. 

It is a phase of the general subject in close alhance with 
that treated in the preceding chapter, that a similar oppo- 
sition to the Government is seen in marked instances 
among clergymen in some of the loyal States. 

The great body of the clergy of all denominations in the 
loyal States, have unquestionably been loyal to the Gen- 
eral Government. But not a few, and among them men 
of abihty and influence, have shown decided sympatliy 
with the rebellion ; sometimes in overt acts, often in speech 
and in their writings, and through other methods ; and 
sometimes by a reticence which has been quite as signifi- 
cant as any open Une of conduct. Some of this descrip- 
tion have been required to take an oath of allegiance to 
the Government, which they have done reluctantly. Some 
would not take it, or their course was such that the alter- 
native was not ofl:ered them ; and they have voluntarily 
left, or have been sent out of the country. Others, whose 
acts have been deemed more highly criminal, have been 
imprisoned ; while still another class have been sent South 
beyond the lines of the Union armies, as in several in- 
stances in Tennessee and other States. 

The more numerous cases of disloyalty among clergy- 
men in the loyal portion of the country, are to be found in 
the Border Slave States and in the District of Columbia. 
We give illustrations in a few examnle:^, from which others 
will be readily called to mind by tho^e who are familiar 
with current events. Similar instances may probably be 
found in all the Border States. 



208 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY 12^^ LOYAL STATES. 

CLERICAL SYMPATHIZERS IX MARYLAND. 

The difficulties which Bishop Whittingham, of the Epis- 
copal Church in Maryland, had with some of his clergy, in 
the early period of the rebellion, are well known. As a 
loyal Prelate, he observed the recommendation of the Gov- 
ernment in its appointment of Fast and Thanksgiving 
Days ; issued his letter to his clergy, enjoining observance, 
and prescribed suitable prayers for the service; but from 
some of the Kectors under his charge, earnest protests 
were made, clearly revealing their rebel proclivities. The 
prayers he has written, to be used during the continuance 
of the war, are even now omitted in some Chnrches, or the 
clergy and the Bishop have been brought into open col- 
lision upon the issue ; while the customary prayer for the 
President of the United States, co-existent with the Church 
service itself, is omitted in some cases, or hypocritically 
uttered. 

Other denominations in Maryland, especially in Balti- 
more, have had ministers in their pulpits who would not 
observe the public days and service recommended by the 
Government, by reason of their rebel sympathies. 

Ministers in some Churches in Baltimore, as reported 
ill the daily papers of that city, have succumbed to tlie 
demand of their parishioners that prayers should not be 
offered for the President, and have left their charges; 
while in other congregations, both Protestant and Catho- 
lic, where such prayers have been offered, open manifesta- 
tions of disapprobation have been made, sometimes by 
worshippers leaving the house during that part of the ser- 
vice, and at other times by significant marks of dissent 
while retaining their seats. Some ministers left Maryland, 
by reason of their Southern sympathies, and early cast in 
thek lot with the fortunes of the rebellion. 



MINISTERS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 209 



DISLOYAL MINISTERS IX THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

It is somewhat surprising that ministers should sympa- 
thize with a rebellion seeking the overthrow of that Gov- 
ernment under the very shadow of whose seat of Admin- 
istration they live, and whose protection makes their homes 
safe and their daily bread sure. But so it was, at the 
beginning of the rebellion, with two prominent clergymen 
of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia. We cannot 
account for it except on the principle that they had Vir- 
ginia blood in their veins, of the modern quality. It cer- 
tainly could claim no affinity with that which character- 
ized the era of Washington and his compeers. 

One of these men is the Rev. John H. Bocock, D. D., 
at the time Pastor of the Bridge Street Presbyterian 
Church, in Georgetown. On the call of President Lin- 
coln for seventy-five thousand troops, April 15, 1861, the 
amiable Doctor said, that "the yellow fever, in the course 
of the summer, would be worth seventy thousand troops 
to us y" accompanying the remark w itli significant signs 
of satisfaction. His rebel proclivities became so demon- 
strative, at a period a little later, that he was obliged to 
go South, beyond the lines of the Federal army. He has 
since given in his full adhesion to the rebellion, and was 
at one time engaged in superintending a manufactory of 
the munitions of war in Richmond, where it was reported 
he was seriously injured by an explosion which oceuiTcd 
in the establishment during the summer of 1863. 

The other gentleman referred to is the Rev. Dr. N'or- 
wood, Rector of an Episcopal Church in the same city, 
when the rebellion began. On the latter part of that 
mournful Sabbath on which the first battle of Bull Run 
was fouglit, Jnly 21, 1861, the secessionists of the North, 
and especially those near the seat of the General Go'.ern- 



210 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

ment, were in liigli glee. During the early part of the 
day, and until near its close, it was siipj^osed the Union 
troops had been victorious ; but when stragglers from our 
army poured into the capital, and wended their way 
through the streets of Washington and Georgetown, and 
the result of the contest became known, the rebel joy 
could no longer be restrained. The ])ious Rector referred 
to was too much elated to hold religious service in the 
evening of that Sabbath, and hence ordered that the 
Church-going bell should not be rung, and it was accord- 
ingly silent, and the Church closed. But, instead of the 
usual worship, so "irrepressible" was the gladness at the 
defeat of the Federal arms, that the good Rector and a 
portion of his parishioners held a sort of IcA^ee on the porch 
of his house ; and as the flying rumors of disaster came in 
quick succession from the battle-field, they eagerly drank 
them in, and their congratulatory " responses" resounded 
through the balmy Sabbath evening air ; and this, too, 
when some of the loyal citizens feared for the safety of the 
capital. On the announcement of one " rumor," the joy 
over the Union disaster seemed to reach its climax. It was 
reported that Colonel Corcoran, of the New- York Sixty- 
ninth (Irish) regiment, who was taken prisoner, had been 
killed. The " Thank God for that," which was uttered 
from the lips of feminine delicacy by a member of the 
Rector's family, was " applauded to the echo." 

Dr. N'orwood soon became too demonstrative to suit the 
inihtary authorities, and he too went to " his own place" — 
within the rebel lines. 

It is believed that in no place within the jurisdiction of 
the General Government, are rebel sympathies among the 
veligious peojyle more demonstrative than in the two citios v.t 
the seat of Government ; a sad testimony for their r.''ig'o:i3 
eruides. 



KEY. THOS. A. HOTT. 211 



EEBEL SYMPATHIZERS AMONG KENTtTCKT CLERGYMEN. 

The more prominent open sympathizers with the rebel- 
lion, among clergymen in Kentucky, are two Presbyterian 
Pastors, the Rev\ Thomas A. Hoyt, and the Rev. Stuart 
Robinson, D. D. The former is a South Carolinian by 
birth, and the latter an Irishman. The former is Pastor of 
the First, and the latter of the Second Presbyterian Church 
in Louisville. Though they have both been exiled from 
Kentucky for some two yeai's or thereabouts, they still 
retain, we believe, in form at least, the Pastoral connection 
with their respective Churches. Why this is, we do not 
know, unless it be that a large portion of their congrega- 
tions sympathize with them. Whether they are, for the 
time, "retired on half pay," or have their snlaries paid in 
full, are private matters, and best known to those who foot 
the bills. We refer to them because they are represent- 
ative men of a considerable class, and because their 
respective cases illustrate important principles involved in 
the struggle between loyalty and treason. 

REV. THOMAS A. HOYT. 

Some two years since, Mr. Hoyt was arrested in Ohio 
for certain proceedings alleged to be disloyal, in connec- 
tion with a Presbyterian clergyman of St. Louis, and they 
together were for a short time imprisoned in Newport 
Barracks, opposite Cincinnati. On being released, Dr. 
Brookes, of St. Louis, as we were informed, took the oath 
of allegiance ; and we learn that he has since been com- 
mendably loyal, and is now a warm supporter of the 
Government in its contest with treason. Mr. Hoyt would 
not take the oath of allegiance, and was sent by the mili- 
tary authorities away from his charge in Louisville. Wliy 
he did not return to his native South, wh-n offered the 
10* 



212 CLEKICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

privilege^ was surprising to some who liad the matter in 
charge. He was permitted to go to the "hated oSTorth.-' 
For a time, we believe, he sojom-ned in Canada. But 
New York city is imderstood to be his " Head-quarters ;" 
whence, as occasion requires, not being permitted to preach 
in Louisville, "for his oath's sake," he can preach for his 
sympathizing brother Van Dyke, of Brooklyn, where it 
may be oaths are not required. 

We have never been able to understand why a clergy- 
man who is not permitted to remain at liome and preach 
because of his disloyalty, or for refusal to take the oath of 
allegiance, should be permitted to go elsewhere within the 
jurisdiction of the Government with entire freedom and 
" exercise his gifts." If it is the principle of criminality 
for which he is exiled, he should be turned over to the 
rebels or exiled out of the country ; for a man who will 
not acknowledge the first duty of a citizen, to be obedient 
to the Government under which he lives, puts himself 
entirely without the Government's protection. If it be 
merely to prevent the harm which a disloyal man may do, 
we think he could do less at home than abroad. The con- 
gregating of disloyal clergymen who have been exiled 
from New Orleans and from other Southern cities because 
they would not take the oath, in the city of New York, for 
example, — the head-quarters of rebel sympathizers, — affords 
greater facilities for aiding the rebellion than they would 
have if they were back in the Crescent City, under the 
watchful eye of a military police. 

MR. HOYT's DISLOYAL SERMON. 

Mr. Hoyt's position was defined at an early period of 
the rebellion. On the National Fast Day appointed by 
President Buchanan, January 4, 1861, he preached in his 
Churcli in Louisville, and published his sermon in the 



ME. HOYT S DISLOYAL SEKMON. 213 

Presbyterian Herald^ then issued in tliat cily, January 
10th. This discourse is instructive on the following points : 
It shows that Mr. Hoyt agrees with other Southern men, 
that slavery lies at the root of the strife ; it is an exhorta- 
tion to the citizens of Kentucky and other slave States, to 
resist the Government, and let the seceders go their way ; 
and while he is one of that class who deem it sacrilege to 
introduce "politics into the pulpit," he here shows us 
what, on this question, in his judgment, is not "politics," 
by deciding the gravest matters of political duty concern- 
ing the Government,, and exhorting his congregation to 
the most definite line of action upon them ; and much more 
of the same sort. We here give a few illustrations. 

In the following paragraph, he intimates the importance 
of the issues involved, in the contest then impending : 

And first, we should settle in our minds that great principles under- 
lie this whole matter ; we should avoid superficial views, and strive to 
see the mighty issues that are pending. This is no temporary, though 
acute, disorder of the body pohtic, but a chronic distemper, now break- 
ing out afresh and throwing the patient into convulsions. This young 
giant would not writhe and perish under a mere functional derange- 
ment; an organic disease preys upon the vitals. The difiTerent portions 
of our country could not come into such hostile and deadly collisioa 
upon the ordinary questions of public policy. 

Then, under the carefully-guarded phraseology employed 
in the following paragraph, he means to intimate that 
slavery is the disturbing element. Nothing else of a reli- 
gious nature can be referred to, where he speaks of " re- 
vealed truth ;" and slavery is also covered up under some 
other phrases. The italics are his. The " one section" is 
of course the South : 

One section of this country believes that its dearest rights are injured 
— the right of self-government, the right to Constitutional liberty, the 
right to equality in the common Government and common domain ; she 
believes that along with these rights is implicated the trut\ the truth of 



214 CLEBICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

God, the revealed truth of God ; and believing that these priceless trea- 
sures are gliding from her grasp, she is struggling to regain them. If 
all this be true, if our liberties and our religion are in danger, what have 
we to do but to stand up boldly for our rights ? 

POLITICAL PREACHING DEFINED. 

He determines against his right to " preach politics ;" 
and shows what is involved therein, as follows : 

Questions of great magnitude and difficulty arise as to the time and 
mode, the when and the how, of discharging our duties in this matter. 
But these are purely political questions, and as such cannot properly 
be discussed in the pulpit. 

We think we see it now. T]ie " time" and the " mode," 
and the " when" and the " how," in regard to " discharging 
our duties," make up the ^:>o//^/caZy while the ''duties" 
themselves are religious. Mark this distinction, all ye who 
preach the Gospel, and whose vocation it is toteacli otliers 
how to preach it. This we should deem one of the latest 
South Carolina distinctions. After having cleai-ly stated 
it, Mr. Hoyt then expatiates on the political and non- 
pulpit side of it, still further : 

Born on the soil of South Carolina, and educated in her views, I have 
not abjured the convictions of a lifetime and professed to have received 
a new revelation, but I have been true to the instincts of nature, and 
have cherished the lessons that I drank in with my mother's milk. But 
what I may think as a man is of no consequence to you on this occa- 
sion and in this place ; you only wish to know the message of the Lord 
at my mouth. The terms of my commission are limited — I am com- 
manded to teach religion, and am allowed to touch on other topics only 
so far as they touch on religion. Were it otherwise, were I allowedfuU 
scope, my natural feelings would spring forward with alacrity to discuss 
this whole matter. But I dare not do it; my commission forbids it. 
* * * For these reasons. I cannot take up those questions — they 
are civil, and not at all religious. 

That is, the " civil" questions concerning the " time," 



KELIGIOTJS PREACHING DEFINED. 215 

the " mode," the " when," and the " how ;" for he speci- 
fies no others which are political. 

RELIGIOUS PREACHING DEFINED. 

He then exhibits the religious side : 

But there are other aspects of the matter which rightfully fall within 
the scope of this day's discourse — aspects which are so strenuously urged 
by every dictate of humanity and religion, and which so exactly tally 
with the precepts of the Gospel of peace, that I feel bound to press them 
upon your attention. The question that lifts its solemn presence 
amongst us this day is, " Shall we have peace or war ?" 

How easily a man can deceive himself by using the 
phrase " Gospel oi peace ^"^ and how convincinirly persuade 
a certain class of his hearers that he is not meddling with 
either politics or loar. We have a good illustration of 
this before us. ^Ir. Hoyt abjures " politics ;" but when 
he comes to put in practice his right to preach religion^ he 
shows that it embodies the following political things, as 
exemplified in this particular discourse : Allowing him to 
decide^ that the " secession" which liad then taken place 
was " a revolution accoiinp)lislied^'' and so to instruct the 
pjeojde ; that the Federal Government has no right to 
employ force to maintain its authority over the seceded 
States ; that " the whole power of the Federal Govern- 
ment" cannot do this ; that, should it be attempted, the 
people of Kentucky and other Border slave States, a por- 
tion of whom he was addressing, should resist the Federal 
Government, " should rise up and hough the horses of 
war," — that is, if the Government should undertake force 
of arms against the rebels, Kentucky and the other Border 
slave States should put themselves into an attitude of 
rebellion by openly opposing the Government ; and then, 
that the seceded States m.ust enter on war, at all hazards 



216 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

if need be, to maintain the doctrine of secession : all 
which lie felt " bound to press"' upon the people as their 
religious duty. 

The point here is none other than this, — that these 
" duties" are " religious," and as such Mr. Hoyt is author- 
ized to preach them, and exhort to their discharge ; 
whereas, to point out the " time" and the " mode," the 
" how" an i the " when," would be " political," and a vio- 
lation of his commission. 

WAR PREACHED IN THE NAME OF PEACE. 

Let us see how fully the points we have made are sus- 
tained by his own language. Commencing our quotation 
immediately after his question, " Shall we have peace or 
war ?" he proceeds : 

The responsibility of its answer rests upon you as citizens of Ken- 
tucky, and as a portion of the middle slaveholding States, it is for them 
to say whether blood shall be shed. They may have delayed their 
answer too long, but I trust not. These great States should rise ztp from 
their knees this day and hough the horses of war, [That is, as appears, 
the Northern or Government " horses."] They should say to the North, 
You SHALL NOT attempt force towards the seceding States — they must 
be allowed peaceably to go out, if they choose. It is not necessary that 
you should admit the right of secession. You may regard it as a revo- 
lution, but as a revolution accomplished. You may say, if you choose, 
that we do not admit that our Constitution contemplated secession, and 
that we do not think the cotton States warranted in what they have 
done ; but, as they have done it, we will xot permit tJiem to be assailed. 

And is it not a revolution accomplished? Does a revolution ever go 
backward ? Can force compel South Carolina to return ? No 1 the 
whole power of the Federal Government is inadequate to the task. She 
may be overrun by invading armies ; her cities may be demolished, and 
her fields ravaged; her churches may be deserted to the moles and the 
bats; her classic halls may echo the hoot of the midnight owl; her 
sons may perish on a hundred battle-fields ; her women, and children, 
and old men, may fly from their burning dwellings; but she can never 
be conquered — never, never! 



THE GRAND DISTINCTION. 217 

On speaking of the riglits and dangers of the South, he 
thus enlarges upon the duty of maintaining them by force, 
if need be, even to the decapitation of the supreme 
authorities : 

If all this be true, if our liberties and our religion are in danger, what 
have we to do but to stand up boldly for our rights — rights that we 
inherit as Englishmen and as Americans; rights that began to be 
secured to us when the Barons wrested Magna Charta from the nerve- 
less grasp of King John ; rights that sought revenge for their violation 
in the royal blood of Charles I.; rights, the vindication of which 
hurled James II. from the throne ; rights, that, rising to still grander 
proportions in this New T\'orld, found a champion in Washington, and 
an embodiment in the institutions of our country. 

THE GRAND DISTINCTION RELIGION AND POLITICS. 

We have then, here, a practical illustration of what it is 
for the pulpit to eschew " politics" and preach " religion." 
It is preaching religion to decide high questions of State ; 
to declare what the Government has a right to do, and 
what it has no authority or power to do ; to settle the 
whole doctrine of " State rights," of which " secession," 
deemed " a revolution accomplished," is the culmination ; 
to determine constructions of the Constitution, wherein 
statesmen differ ; to decide, that in case the Government 
determines on asserting its authority to overthrow trea- 
son, it is the duty of the people of other great States to 
run into treason and rebellion likewise; and, most espe- 
cially, under the specious language, " the Gospel of j^eace," 
to cause the Church to resound to the blast of the vKir- 
trumpet, to summon men to join the armies of revolt 
against a lawful popular Government. All this is religion^ 
and in it the people are instructed by authority. To add 
the ingredient oi politics^ which would detile the whole ser- 
vice, it is only necessary to determine the " time" and 
the " mode," the " how" and the " when." 



218 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

This is a pretty fair specimen of the value which that 
class of men, who are ever harping about " political 
preachers," place upon their own doctrine. The senti- 
ments preached are sufficiently " religions," if they are on 
their side ; but they are wickedly "poUtical," if opposed 
to their mews. 

NO POSSIBLE NEUTRALITY. 

We commend the outspoken frankness of Mr. Hoyt, so 
far as seen in contrast with another class, remarkably re- 
ticent. In a time of treason, rebellion, and devastating 
civil war, it is every man's solemn duty,^ — clergyman or 
layman, — to show his colors. It is a sin to do otherwise. 
Neutrality, at such a time, is a sin against God, and a 
crime against the country. But there is, in fact, no neu- 
trality, regarding this contest, in the breast of any Ameri- 
can citizen. It is an impossible thing, and every man 
knows and feels it. He is either for the Government in 
this struggle, or against it. And yet, there are men in 
the Border States, and elsewhere, who have at least the 
form of manhood in outward appearance, — men, too, who 
hold a commission, as they declare, from God, to instruct 
the people in their religious duties, — who, in this contest 
between loyalty and treason, claim to be "neutral," to 
have "no opinion," and to deem it best that "a minister's 
views should not be know^n." We can only utter for such 
the prayer of the Judge for the culprit sentenced to the 
gallows, "May the Lord have mercy upon their souls!" 

While we admire Mr. Hoyt's candor, infinitely better 
than that feigned " neutrality" which many Border State 
ministers pretend without practising, we place him in the 
same list of guilty responsibility for the treason and rebel- 
lion now desolating the land, with distinguished ministers 
in the Rebel States ; with this marked difference, that he 



REV. STTJART EOBINSOX, D. D. 219 

is living within the loyal district covered by the Govern- 
ment, while giving his heart and his preaching in the line 
of that rebellion which is seeking its overthrow. 

EEV. STUAET E0BI:N^S0X, D. D. 

We have already spoken of Dr. Robinson as Pastor of a 
Chnrch in Louisville, at the beginning of the rebellion, and 
still holding a formal connection with it. For some two 
years he has been an exile in Canada, living in Toronto. 
The facts about his exit from his adopted country, and 
takino; refuo-e under the flas: which waves over the " swate 
isle" in which he was born, are about as follows : 

During the summer of 1862, when temporarily absent 
from Louisville, such was the feeling entertained toward 
him by the military authorities in that city, as his friends 
believed, that they advised him not to return. He took 
their advice, and voluntarily betook himself to a place 
without the jurisdiction of the United States, where he has 
since remained. We have never heard what was charged 
against him, nor why his friends were ap}>rehensive for his 
safety, in case he should return home. It has been said by 
some of them, that he would not take the oath oF allegiance, 
and hence would not return, knowing that this would be 
required of him. Dr. Robinson himself has admitted, sub- 
stantially if not directly, in what he has since written upon 
this express point, that he would not take the oath of 
allegiance to the United States Government. It may be, 
for aught we know, that this is the sole occasion of his 
exile. Even if this is all, it is sufficient proof of disloyalty 
with right-minded men. 

But a question lies back of this. Why was such a de- 
mand made of him? What words, or acts, or other con- 
duct, was he guilty of, that led the authorities to decMn the 
oath requisite in his particular case ? All ministers are 



220 CLEEICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

not required to take an oath of allegiance. But in special 
cases, such requisition has been deemed essential for pub- 
lic safety. A minister of the Gospel, above all other men, 
should so conduct, that he cannot even be suspected of heing 
disloyal to the Government which protects him. And we 
venture to say, that there has been no case of arrest, or 
infringement, or threatening of any one's liberty or safety, 
in the loyal States, concerning whom there was not some 
good ground for the suspicion, at least, that he was in 
some way aiding the rebellion. But the simple fi.ct that 
Dr. Robinson's friends thought, and his judgment and con- 
science approved the suggestion, that Canada was 9 safer 
place for him than Kentucky, \^ prima facie evidence that 
the case is against him ; that his presence and influence in 
Louisville were deemed to be against the Government by 
the military authorities, and that it would be improper for 
him to return there without taking the oath of allegiance ; 
all which is strengthened by the consideration that the 
Commander of that Military Department at the time was 
Dr. Robinson's particular friend, and would do him no 
injustice. 

HE EDITS A DISLOYAL PAPEK. 

Our object in referring to this case at all, is, that it fur- 
nishes a striking illustration of disloyalty to the Govern- 
ment, and sympathy with the rebellion, in a leading 
minister of a Border State, which, by successive votes of 
its people at the polls, has determined to stand by the 
Government and the Union. We need not go for proof to 
what he did, immediately leading to his exile. Ever since 
he has been in Canada, he has edited a paper, which is 
issued in Louisville, and widely circulated in Kentucky, 
from which the proof of his disloyalty and sympathy with 
treason and rebellion is patent to all who read the sheet. 



DE. ROBINSON EDITS A DISLOYAL PAPEE. 221 

This paper is called The True Presbyterian. It was 
published for some time before Dr. Robinson left Ken- 
tucky, and edited by him, and was at one time suspended 
by njilitary authority ; and afterwards, through the inter- 
ference of a friend, the resumption of its publication was 
allowed. During the last year or more, its disloyal utter- 
ances have been more outspoken than usual, thougli from 
first to last its whole tone and spirit have been pervaded 
with hostility to the course of the Government and sym- 
patliy with the rebellion. Its articles are spiced with a 
venom which is scarcely rivalled by the secular prints of 
Richmond. 

The animating spirit of the pn|)er is Dr. Robinson, safely 
housed in Toronto under the protection of the British flag, 
while the paper emanates from Louisville, protected in its 
treasonable influence by the flag of the United States. 
We have not the least doubt that The True Preshyterian 
is one of the most powerful auxiliaries for keeping alive 
the spirit of the rebellion among the secessionists of 
Kentucky. 

In saying that this is a disloyal sheet, we do not speak 
at random ; we shall give the proof For the responsi- 
bility of its influence, its editors, publishers, correspond- 
ents, subscribers, and patrons, must be held to account, 
on any correct principles of judgment; though, as we have 
said, Dr. Robinson is the soul of the concern. For our 
individual self, as we have taken this paper froui the 
beginning, our conscience is vindicated on the same ground 
that the late Dr. Emmons justified himself for purchasmg 
infidel books. He said his library contained "the best 
and worst books in the world :" that it was necessary for 
a minister to consult infidel Morks such as he would not 
recommend to his people, for " they should know what the 
Devil is about." On the same princii>le, in this time of 



222 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

rebellion, we by no means confine our reading to one side 
of the question, either in secular or religious literature. 
We consult papers and books of all parties, and especially 
those which claim to be of the "religious" sort. For this 
purpose we have taken, as long as the mails were open, 
several of the religious papers and periodicals of the 
South. On the same principle, if his Satanic Majesty 
should escape to the earth, and set up a religious or secular 
journal in some metropolis of our country, we should 
become one of his subscribers. But we seriously doubt 
whether he could carry out his designs more effectually 
through such means thaii they are now being executed by 
some of the servants he employs ; of which The True 
Presbyterian is a fair specimen of the " religious" press, 
and indeed the only paper of any denomination that we 
know of in all the loyal States that is not openly and 
decidedly sustaining the Government in its efibrts to put 
down the rebellion. 

ITS DISLOYAL COURSE IN GENERAL. 

We do not intend to wade through the entire files of 
this paper for our proofs, but will t:ike a single number of 
a recent date as a sample of many more. 

Before quoting it, however, Ave will simply note the 
leading characteristics of the disloyalty which runs 
through this paper, from the first number to the last, as 
must be well known to every loyal person who reads it. 

It started out on the avowed prmciple that it was going 
to maintain a high ton (3 of spirituality ; that the necessity 
for this arose from the fact that the religious papers of the 
countrv had become secularized and political, — the best 
ilhistrations for which were, that they spoke out boldly in 
opposition to the rebellion, and in support of the ('.overn- 
ment and the war for its suppression, — and that ;h-3 



THE CHTJECH VILIFIED FOR LOYALTY. 223 

Churches of all denominations had become openly corrupt 
and utterly apostate, as seen in tlieir resolutions and acts 
adopted in support of the Government. In this extraor- 
dinary state of religious degeneracy, The True Presby- 
terian was going to be strictly and purely "religious," 
Avould abjure and eschew " politics" altogether, and set a 
high example of what a religious ]owxt^^ should be. The 
mask was soon thrown off. It is, and has been from its 
first number, for a paper claiming to be " religious," one 
of the most intensely political journals in the country ; and 
its politics are disloyal and treasonable in their spirit, 
tendencies, terms, and intent. 

IT VILIFIES THE CHURCH FOR LOYALTY. 

There is not a branch of the Church which has passed 
resolutions in support of the Government which it has not 
denounced and maligned in the most bitter and vile terms. 
There is no body of religionists in any part of the loyal 
States which has manifested disfavor with the Government 
and sympathy with the rebellion, which it has not held up 
for approbation ; as, for example, that of a Methodist 
congregation in the interior of Penusylvania, which 
recently passed resolutions against the loyal action of the 
General Conference of that large and influential Church in 
May last in Philadelphia, and that of a Methodist Conven- 
tion held in Louisville, which took action against the 
proceedings of the Bishops of that Church. There is not 
a distinguished man in the Church who has shown his 
loyalty in his writings, nor a periodical that has taken the 
same course, — especially those in the Presbyterian branch, 
— that has not been blackballed by that sheet by name, in 
terms that would eclipse a London Fish Market ; embracing 
such venerable names as Drs. Hodge, Spring, Breckinridge, 
Junkin, Musgrave, and hosts of others, including all the 



224 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

editors of the religious pi*ess ; and not a prominent man 
in the Church sympathizing with treason, nor an insignifi- 
cant one of that character, has escaped its commendations. 
On the otlier liand, while it has often been very earnest in 
its exhortations for " peace," and has continually denounced 
and mourned over " this cruel war against our Southern 
brethren," — a war begun by themselves for the destruction 
of our nationality, — and while the ministers of the South- 
ern Church of all branches have been the foremost in 
urffino; on the war ao-ainst the National Government, the 
Constitution, and the Union, and many of the more prom- 
inent of them have held commissions as officers and have 
fought in the rebel army, no article has ever appeared in that 
paper whose object was to condemn the wickedness of this 
pious work of " our Southern brethren," but many para- 
graphs are found in its columns extenuating their course, 
which were well calculated and directly designed to give 
them substantial " aid and comfort ;" while, also, some of 
these leading men have been especially commended by name 
for their exalted virtues, and held up as models worthy of 
imitation by all men. It sometimes waxes very warm 
upon the question of Northern infraction of "Constitu- 
tional rights," but this paper may be searched throughout 
for a sinirle condemnation of tlie infractions of the Consti- 
tution by treason and rebellion which Southern men have 
committed, and 7iot one such line of condemnation can be 
found. 

IT ABUSES THE GOVERNMENT. 

In res:ard to the General Government, whose flag pro- 
tects the property of The, True Fre8lnjleria?i,—md under 
whose jurisdiction the "unclean spirit" of the paper, 
" walking through dry places, seeking rest," does not find 
it well to reside, — its course is very similar to that towards 
the loyal action and loyal men of the Church. There is 



THE GOYEENMENT ABUSED. 225 

scarcely any thing which the Government does towards 
putting down the rebellion which it docs not condemn. 
We challenge the most careful reader of tliat bheet, 
whether he be loyal or a secessionist, to point to a single 
article it ever published, whose object was to show 
sympathy for the Government in its contest with treason, 
and that it favored putting down the rebellion hy any 
means whatever- or that it ever contained an editorial or 
any otlier article, whose object was to show that the rebel- 
lion is wrong, as an offence against either man or God ; or 
that its editor. Dr. Robinson, has ever explicitly stated in 
that paper, that he is 7iot in favor of the triumph of the 
rebellion and of the dismemberment of the Union in the 
setting up of an independent " Confederacy" in the South, 
— that he is xot, heart and soul, in full sympathy with the 
rebels, — although the charges that lie is so have been 
frequently made against him pubhcly, and he has been 
challenged to deny them in his columns in direct terms. 

While this negative view of the case is sufficient of 
itself to condemn any such editorial course in a time of 
rebellion, and to brand an editor who pursues it with 
public and open disloyalty, the charge cannot be evaded 
in this case on any plea of neutrality, and that silence is 
maintained for spirituality's sake, and because it is a " re- 
ligious" journal. On the contrary, this paper speaks out 
openly against the Government ; against almost every 
department of it, civil and military ; against its general 
course and its specific measures towards the rebellion ; 
against the acts of the Administration, and of the War 
Department ; against the Military Orders of the Govern- 
ment ; against the course of its Commanding Generals ; 
against iis interference with slavery in the rebel States; 
against, indeed, every thing which it is doing to put down 
the rebellion : includincr abuse of it for interfering with 



226 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

openly disloyal citizens at the North. As a fitting illustra- 
tion of this, it evinces its deep sympathy for treason and 
traitors, by holding- up as martyrs some whom the Govern- 
ment has laid hands upon to protect its own safety and 
the safety of the peo}>le at large. Mr. Vallandigham is a 
special object of its editorial compassion, although he was 
condemned by a regular Military Court, which was sus- 
tained by the United States District Court, and again by 
the non-interference of the Supreme Court of the United 
States, as well as by the Executive of the nation, and 
although he was repudiated by the people of Ohio. While 
making a martyr of one thus judicially condemned for 
disloyalty, it abuses most especially and repeatedly in its 
columns, the upright and honored Judge who declined to 
interfere with the regular course of lawful authority in the 
case. 

The terms which it employs to vent its spleen at the 
whole administration of the Government, civil and mili- 
tary, are fully equal to any emanations from the secular 
press at Richmond, and in many respects the rebel journals 
of the rebel capital are left far in the rear in the eftbrt to 
seek out phrases of treasonable malignity. 

In giving these general characteristics of The True 
Presbyterian, every loyal reader of the paper knows that 
they are fully maintained by the facts, and that, if there is 
any diiference, our representation falls below the truth. 
This is the kind of paper which is sustained by respectable 
people in Kentucky, some of whom are loyal ; sustained 
largely by the Presbyterian Church, in which, among the 
ministry and people, are specimens of as rank sympathy 
with the rebellion as can be found in any part of the 
Union. Is it any wonder, with such aids at home, that 
the State is overrun with rebel raiders, under the lead of 
John Morgan, " the chivalrous Southern gentleman," as 



SPECIMENS OF DISLOYALTY. 227 

refined ladies style him, and that its loyal people are con- 
stantly harried and harassed in person and property ? 

SPECIMEISrS OF DISLOYALTY. HIS POSITION DEFINED. 

For an example of many, we take a single issue of The 
True Presbyterian., that of March 17, 1864. One article 
is specially noticeable in the fact, that while Dr. Robinson 
is apparently attempting to vindicate his loyalty, he abuses 
the Government in the same breath. Keferrins^ to the 
New York Observer'' s remark, that it is a " sin and shame 
not to be for the Government," Dr. Robinson says : 

"We are not sure that we and the Observer " understand the case alike" 
here, as President Lincoln says. If he mean by "Government" the 
Constitution, and official acts of the Administration according to the Con- 
stitution, then we have given stronger proof of loyalty than the Ob- 
server. For though maligned, insulted, and robbed, by minions of the 
Administration, we have steadfastly withstood the temptation to swerve 
from our fidelity in "word or conduct" to the Government. But if, by 
"the Government," the Observer means an Administration in the hands 
of cut-throat abolition infidels, setting at defiance alike the ordinance of God 
and the Constitution of the country, tiien^ we are " jTot for the Gov- 
ernment," whatever ^^ sin and shame''' may be involved in it. 

This is sufficiently plain as defining his position. It em- 
braces the essence of the usual resort of traitors, who 
sometimes attempt to distinguish between the " Govern- 
ment," and the "Administration" in which, for the time 
being, all the authority, dignity, and power of the Govern- 
ment are embodied. It qualifies this, however, by the 
distinction between the Government constitutionally and 
unconstitutionally administered, — a very palpable dis- 
tinction. And then, — passing by the official and authori- 
tative decisions of every department of the Government, 
Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, in which they have 
been agreed on all questions which have been acted upon 
11 



228 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

by them respectively touching the rebellion and the wnr, 
— Dr. Robinson takes upon himself to be sole judge in 
the matter, and to decide on his individual responsibility 
that the Government is acting unconstitutionally, " set- 
ting aside the Constitution of the country," and therefore 
openly announces, " ve are not for the Government?'' If 
this is not disloyalty, it would be difficult to define the 
term. 

The spur of his zeal for Constitutional liberty^ is his 
devotion to negro slavery. To deify and sanctify the 
right to enslave /(9?/r millions of human beings, who have 
an infinitely clearer right to libeily before the bar of 
justice, than he has to his personal freedom before the 
laws of the country he is betraying. The True Presbyterian 
is largely devoted ; and he deems it God-service to abuse 
the Government because it has stopped the mouths of a 
few prominent men, who, like himself, were acting in 
sympathy with those who are in arms to overthrow it. It 
is not difficult, therefore, to select the term out of the ]»hrase 
in which he characterizes the rulers of the country, — " cut- 
throat aholition infidels," — which most of all expresses the 
depth of his soul's abhorrence. 

In the same article from which we have quoted, Dr. 
Robinson further shows his contempt for "the powers that 
be," by speaking of some of the Generals in the army high- 
est in rank as "petty military despots,"' and of their " rule" 
as being " instigated by the canaille of the neighborhood ;" 
and of the head of the Department of War, as " that emi- 
nent father in God, Secretary Stanton ;" and elsewhere, so 
exact are his rebel instincts, that he falls into rebel phra- 
seology aptly, when characterizing General Butler as 
" Beast Butler," and other leading Generals of tlie army 
as " military satraps," and much more of the same sort, 
found in every number. 



god's cuese with the president. 229 

god's " curse" with the president. 

Another instance revealing his strong rebel leanings in 
the paper of the same date, — for all our extended extracts 
are confined to one number, — is seen in an editorial in 
which he objects to the course of certain religious gentle- 
men, wherein he takes occasion to draw a comparison 
between preceding administrations of the Government and 
the present one, much to the disparagement of the latter, 
in this style : 

Under the thirteen preceding Presidents, God's blessing seemed to 
rest upon the nation from generation to generation, luhile His awful curse 
conies ivith Mr. Lincoln. We are free to say, wicked as we no doubt 
will seem to these holy men, that judging from the history of our coun- 
try, while "we as a nation had no religion," we were far better off than 
now, loith all the religion that Mr. Lincoln! s official piety has infused into 
thenaiion. As '"a nation with no religion," we had generally peace 
and quietness — faithful observance of public covenants — respect for the 
amenities of civil and social intercourse between all sections of the land 
— unparalleled success in all secular enterprise, and marvellous suc- 
cess in all our efforts for the advancement of Christ's kingdom. As a 
nation with a religion, in spite of Presidential fastings and prayers and 
thanksgivings, we are rapidly verging to barbarism, the land filled with 
rapine and blood, &c. 

These comparisons are understood. Under all former 
administrations, " public covenants" were scrupulously 
kept; under the "curse" of Mr. Lincoln and his "official 
piety," they are broken. Under former Presidents, proper 
" civil and social amenities" were shown toward " our 
Southern brethren ;" but now, poor souls, they are treated 
very uncivilly with shell and canister for their pious ofier- 
ings on tlie altar of treason. Under Presidents Pierce and 
Buchanan, when, through theiv pectdiarly "faithful obser- 
vance of public covenants," slavery had a fair prospect of 
becoming universal in the country, — either by importing 



230 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

more Africans, or enslaving, as the amiable Dr. Armstrong 
would have it, all the " poor whites," — we had " unpar- 
alleled success in all secular enterprise," and cotton was 
to reign over all nations ; but now, under the " awful curse 
that comes with Mr. Lincoln," gold goes up and greenbacks 
go down, and as for the great Apostles of the rebellion 
among " our Southern brethren," their idol king is de- 
throned and they are reduced to quite an apostolic condi • 
tion, as many of them have " neither gold, nor silver, nor 
brass, in their purses, neither two coats, nor shoes," and 
as for their " scrip," it has long since gone down far below 
zero. Under former Presidents, when it was orthodox to 
preach up the divinity of slavery, and when it was sin, 
"infidelity and apostasy," to preach or resolve against it, 
" Christ's kingdom" had a most " marvellous success ;" 
but now, under " Mr. Lincoln's official j^iety," when the 
country is ready to throw off the incubus of slavery, "we 
are rapidly verging to barbarism." These may be en- 
titled "The Pious Lamentations of Stuart Robinson," and 
will do to keep company with the " Sorrows of Werter." 

THE WAE CHARGED ON NORTHERN MEN. 

We give two extracts more from the same number of 
the paper, contributed by other writers. We cannot vouch 
for the correctness of the writer's quotations in the first 
extract, except in one instance, but we give them as we 
here find them. He is mourning over the war, and charg- 
ing the responsibility for its sad events upon the men he 
names. It shows on which side ?us own heart is, — that 
of the rebellion or the Government : 

How naturally the poor dying soldier might claim, that in a very ac- 
ceptable manner he must have been serving God, while employed in 
butchering rebels 1 Could he not refer to the calmest utterances of the 
most eminent of the so-called conservative preafhers of the land, repre- 



DENtnsrCIATIONS OF OUR GOVERNMENT. 231 

sentative men of by far the largest part of the Presbyterian Church, 
that the war is, on the Federal side, a just, a necessary, and a holy ivar f 
Did not the learned and able Rev. George Junkin, D. D., on the lioor of 
the General Assembly, in 1862, unrebuked by that Assembly, declare, 
that "the present rebellion is a hell-born delusion, an ungodly, wicked 
delusion ; the present war was founded in treason, in deception the 
most terrible that ever was on earth, except the deception in Eden ?" 
Did not the meek and gentle Rev. S. I. Prime, D. D., editor of the Neiu 
York Observer, write in his paper in May, 1862, that no punishment in 
this world or the next was severe enough for those Southern traitors? 
Did not the amiable and fearless Professor in the Danville Theological 
Seminary, even Rev. Robert L. Stanton, D D., deliberately characterize 
this Southern movement — so written in the Danville Revieio, — as " the 
most wicked and causeless attempt to overthrow good government 
which has ever been made since the rebellion of tlie angels which 
kept not their first estate ?" Did not the sober and earnest Rev. George 
W. Musgrave, D. D., long a Secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions, 
tell the Almighty in his public prayer, in the hearing of assembled thou- 
sands, as met at the second anniversary of the Christian Commission, 
in Philadelphia, January 28, 1864, that "the treason of the rebels is a 
crime against tlieir country not only, but a crime against the Almighty 
Himself; that they are resisting His servants. His divine, established 
ordinances?" 

The article from which the above is taken, is headed 
" Who slew all these?" The writer indicates his answer, 
which sliows that he relieves " our Southern brethren" 
fiom the responsibility. 

OUR GOVERNMENT WORSE THAN FRENCH REVOLUTIONISTS. 

The only further reference we make, is to an article in 
which the writer draws a comparison between the French 
Government, in the Revolution of 1793, and the General 
Government of the present time, and strives to make out 
a case most decidedly in favor of the French. He quotes 
at great length from a discourse of Dr. Timotlij D wight, 
of Yale College, delivered in 1 8 1 2, upon Infidelity. Speak- 
ing of the French, Dr. Dwight says : 



232 CLEKICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

They raised armies, in different years, amounting to five, seven, nine, 
and twelve hundred thousand men: "the strongest and most formida- 
ble body which was ever assembled on this globe." This multitude 
they emptied out upon every neighboring State. The life, hberty, and 
property of every bordering nation was consumed; and a boundless 
scene of desolation everywhere marked its course. It made no diller- 
ence whether the nation was a friend or a foe, was in alliance with 
them, or at war. Whatever was thought convenient for France, was 
done ; and done in defiance of every law of God or man ; of the most 
solemn treaties, of the most absolute promises. 

This is but a small portion of the extract, and although 
we have not verified it, we presume it is correctly taken 
from Dwight's works. Upon the whole extract, as he gives 
it, the writer says, referring to the course of the United 
States Government, and those who support it in putting 
down the rebellion : 

In making this quotation, it is not my purpose, Mr. Editor, to enlarge 
ujyon the svnilarity of the events and doings of the French Revolution, 
and those of our own land and day. Were your columns the proper 
place (how scrupulous!), it would be no difficult task to show a vwst 
striking resemblance in the events and doings of the two countries and 
times. Indeed, it could be demonstrated, that, taking all things into 
consideration, the wickedness and crimes of the fanatical infidels, and 
their adherents of our day, far exceed in atrocity and enormity those of 
the time of the French Revolution. * * * Like their elder brethren, 
the infidels of France, they (the " Gospel ministers and Christians in the 
Northern States") have allowed an adoration of our natioxal unity, 
greatness and glory, equality and fraternity, to supplant in their hearts 
the adoration of the Prince of Peace ; and principles and precepts of 
corrupt humanity to rule their actions, instead of the principles and 
precepts of the Gospel of God. 

It is only necessary to observe, in reference to the above, 
thnt the character drawn by the graphic pen of Dr. Dwiglit 
of the ruling party in France, leu by Robespierre, D:mton, 
and their confrh'es^ is held up by this writer as furnishing 
a good picture of the character of the Government of the 



CALUMNY SELF-EEFUTED. 233 

United States and its supporters in tlie present war against 
rebellion, except that " the wickedness and crimes" of the 
latter " far exceed in atrocity and enormity those of the 
time of the French Revolution." 

CHARGE OF DISLOYALTY SUSTAINED. 

It may be thought that we have given far too much 
attention to the course of a single paper. Our apology is, 
that it is probably the only paper claiming to be " reli- 
gious," within the loyal portion of the country, which is not 
friendly to the Government ; that it is published and mainly 
circulated in a State which has repeatedly voted against 
secession, and which is at this moment, and has frequently 
been since the beginning of the war, overrun by guerrillas 
who are laying waste the country, and that the course of 
this sheet is well calculated to give " aid and comfort" to 
this mode of rebel warfire. 

And now we ask, can any candid man read the evidence 
we have adduced in the foregoing extracts, — all taken from 
a single 7iumber of the paper, — and say that The True 
Presbyterian is not a disloyal print ? — that its editor, pub- 
lishers, and correspondents, are not inimical to the Gov- 
einment which protects their homes, and that their inner- 
most souls are not in full sympathy with rebels in arms 
who are seeking to overthrow it? No jury of twelve 
honest men could hesitate to bring in a verdict of guilty. 

CALUMNY SELF-EEFUTED. 

This paper and certain secular prints from which it often 
quotes, denounce the Government for its tyranny and op- 
pression, for its interference with tlie liberty of person, 
speech, and the press. Dr. Robinson says of liiniself, in 
the first extract given, that he has been " mahgned, insult- 
ed, and robbed, by minions of the Administration." The 



234 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY 11^ LOYAL STATES. 

reply to this is unanswerable. The simple feet that such 
men and such papers are permitted to live and labor to 
thwart the Government and lo aid the rebellion, is an 
overwhelming disproof of its oppression. If the Govern- 
ment were really acting with stern justice^ they would 
never more be permitted to trouble it. If they were pur- 
suing sach a course at Richmond, they would instantly 
have a lodgment in Castle Thunder, or be hung by the 
neck — or the heels. This they well know. It would be 
no better with them if they wei-e doing their traitorous 
work in Paris or London. There is no nation under heaven, 
but that of the United States, where such things would be 
tolerated for a moment in a time of foul lebellion, whil-e 
possessing the power which this nation has developed. 
And yet, the Government is maligned as oppressive ! The 
very paragraph which contains the calumny is its own 
refutation. 

THE REMEDY. ^TWO EXAMPLES. 

If such is the guilt, what is the remedy? We have 
already indicated what would be done elsewhere. But we 
incline to the opinion that the Government would act 
wisely to allow such prints to go cm unmolested ; though 
many think differently. They uncpiestionably exert a pow- 
erful influence against the Government, and give to the 
rebel cause substantial " aid" and much needed " comfort." 
But they serve at least two goo;l purposes. They afford 
to the woiid the best illustration of the leniency of the 
Government ; and they give striking examples of the depth 
of human depravity. Both of these may have an impor- 
tant end to serve in the development and flnal elevation 
of mankind. 

An example may be given, however, of a i-emedy wliich 
eminent statesmen of a Border State approve. The Mary- 



THE REMEDY. — TWO EXAMPLES. 235 

land Constitutional State Convention, July 19, 1864, 
passed the following order, by a vote of thirty-three to 
seventeen : 

Ordered^ That this Convention, representing the people of Maryland, 
hereby respectfully request the President of the United States, and the 
Commandants of Military Departments in which Maryland is included, 
as an act of justice and propriety^ to assess upon sympathizers with the 
rebelUon resident in this State, the total amount of all losses and spolia- 
tions sustained by loyal citizens of the United States resident in this 
State, by reason of the recent rebel raid, to compensate loyal sufiferers. 

It is as clear as the light, that these raiders in the loyal 
Border States are encouraged by the sympathizers with the 
rebellion therein ; sometimes by secret organizations, which 
the President's Proclamation of Martial Law in Kentucky 
declares, upon the authority of military men and others, to 
exist in that State ; sometimes by information given to 
them ; and powerfully by the disloyal presses in the Border 
States. Through these means, the raiding parties, and 
especially those guerrilla bands that are nothing more than 
highway robbers and land pirates, are emboldened in their 
work. The Maryland Convention has expressed its solemn 
judgment, proposing a remedy. At the very time that 
State was thus suffering, and the national capital was threat- 
ened, raiding parties were laying waste Kentucky, through 
encouragement given by " their friends" at home. If the 
remedy suggested by a body of eminent statesmen, is " an 
act of justice and propriety" for the longitude of Mary- 
land, it would be no less so for that of Kentucky. If the 
rule were applied there, many men, now rolling in wealth, 
who have aided John Morgan, and ladies who have kissed 
his hand and wept tears of joy over his photograph, would 
be made penniless. If, under this " act of justice," that 
quality were meted out in the manner proposed, and the 
guilty were rewarded " according to their works." the edi- 



236 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

tors, publishers, and correspondents of The True Presby- 
terian would be reduced to beggary. 

Another example is found in what the papers state, that 
Major-General Burbridge, commanding in Kentucky, has 
lately issued an order similar in principle to that recom- 
mended by the Maryland Convention, and even going 
much farther in retaliatory measures. We have not seen 
it, and cannot speak of its provisions ; but if founded on 
"justice and propriety," as we presume is the case, it may 
turn out that editors and others who are sowing broadcast 
those seeds which produce such a harvest of desolation 
and blood through the fair fields of Kentucky, may yet 
receive their deserts in the visitations which will be made 
upon their persons and property. 

GOVERNMENT ORDERS VINDICATED. 

It will be appropriate, at this point, to notice one of the 
grossest charges which the " religious" journal above 
named has brought against the Government, and ngainst 
every branch of the Northern Church. On application to 
the War Department, by the Bishops of the Methodist 
Episcoi)al Church, and by Missionary Boards of the Bap- 
tist, Presbyterian, and other churches at the North, 
for permission to occupy the pulpits and vacant neighbor- 
hoods of the Rebel States, that the Gospel might be 
preached, the Govei-nment granted these requests, reuard- 
ing the commission given by these several Church author- 
ities as a guarantee that the men sent South would be 
loyal, and imposing no other condition. Orders were 
issued to the different military commanders to give persons 
tints duly commissioned by the Church, all proper facili- 
ties for their work, and to put the pulpits at their disposal. 
The Generals in command issued their orders accord- 
ingly. 



GOVEKNMEXT OBDEES VINDICATED. 237 

This proceeding on the part of the Government has 
been denounced by the above-named paper ; and that the 
Church should seek such authority from the State, has 
been paraded as one of the conclusive proofs of its utter 
apostasy. At least one religious body, the Presbytery of 
Louisville, complained to the Genei'al Assembly of the 
Church that its Board of Missions should thus seek to 
have the commissions of its ministers indorsed by the 
State ; and, in tliis course, it saw nothing but shame and 
" ruin" impending. It is in regard to these measures par- 
ticularly, that Dr. Robinson speaks so contemptuously of 
the Secretary of War, and of the orders of certain mili- 
tary commanders. In the same mniiber of his paper be- 
fore quoted, he speaks of " Secretary Stanton's letter in- 
stalling Bishop Ames as Military Pontiff in a vast district, 
and. the infamous Norfolk order of Gen. Wild ;" and also 
has the following : 

What though Methodist and Baptist Mohammedans grasp the sword 
offered them by that "eminent Father in God," Secretary Stanton, to 
drive back their Southern brethren into the fold out of which Northern 
faithlessness to covenants and semi-infidel opinions had driven them 
twenty years ago. * * * "VTe had fondly hoped that so far as 
Churches are concerned, this disgrace might be confined to Northern 
Methodists and Baptists. To our mortification, and the disgrace of our 
own Church, we find the (Philadelphia) Prtshyterian, a journal that will 
be understood to speak for Presbyterians because it once did, — for the 
public at large will not understand its miserable fall, — proposing that 
tlie Presbyterian Board of Missions should apply to the War Depart- 
ment for an order similar to the Methodist order ! We have little fear 
that this Board will adopt the suggestion. Even should it be so run 
mad, the Church would be apt to stop supphes till a saner Board were 
put in its place. 

The Board here referred to did "apply to the War De- 
partment for an order," and obtained it, and if not entirely 
" similar to the Methodist order," it is nevertheless based 



238 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

on the essential principle which underlies the whole case 
as between the Church and the State ; and it is in regard 
to that principle, chiefly, that we now refer to the case. 
It is in reference to this latter application that the Louis- 
ville Presbytery complained ; and it need only be said 
here, in contradiction to the above prophecy, that the 
General Assembly, in May last, did not elect " a saner 
Board," but approved and sustained its course. 

The order from the War Department to the Methodist 
Bishops, and that of General Wild, are before us. We 
see nothing "infamous" in either, although both are so 
styled. In the first, " transportation and subsistence" are 
to be furnished " Bishop Ames and his clerk, when it can 
be done without prejudice to the service." This is mostly 
an aifairof the Government, and is of minor consideration. 
In that of General Wild, it was ordered that the Churches 
should be " open freely to all ofticers and soldiers, white 
or colored^'' &c. Perhaps the infamy is found in the 
hue of the skin. But these, as we have said, nre subor- 
dinate matters. We only desire to look at the radical 
principle at the bottom of these cases, as furnishing or not 
a just ground of complaint, to say nothing of vile abuse, 
both of the Church and the Government.* 

* That the reader may see the two orders referred to, each of which is pronounced 
"infamous," we here Insert them as found in The Ttnie Presbyterian of March 17, 
1864: 

"Wak Department, Adjutant-General's Office, 
"Washington, November 30, 1863. 

"To the Generals commanding the Departments of tlie Missouri, the Tennessee, 
and the Gulf, and all Generals and Officers commanding armies, detachments, and 
corps, and posts, and all Officers in the service of the United States in the above- 
mentioned Departments: You are hereby directed to place at the disposal of Rev. 
Bishop Ames, all houses of worship belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church 
South, in which a loyal minister, who has been appointed by a loyal Bishop of said 
Church, does not now officiate. It is a matter of great importance to the Go^•ern- 
ment^in its efforts to restore tranquiliity to the community and peace to thf nation, 
that Christian ministers should, by example and precept, support and foster the 
loyal sentiment of the people. Bishop Ames eiijoys the entire conlidenco of this 
Department, and no doubt is entertained that all' ministers who mav be ajipointed 
by him will be entirely loyal. You are expected to give him all tiie aid. countciianc*', 
and support, practicable in the execution of his important mission. You are also 
authorized and directed to furnish Bishop Ames and his clc rk Mith transportation 



CHUECH APPLICATION VINDICATED. 239 

What is here iavolved ? Here is no union of Church 
and State, as some have pretended ; no subordination of 
the Church to the Government, out of its proper sphere, nor 
of the Government to the Church ; no " indorsing" by the 
Government of a minister's " commission to preach the 
Gospel ;" no improper position for the Church at the 
North to take; and no injustice to the Church at the 
South, so far as it is in rebelHon, as to rights of property, 
organization, or spiritual teachers. 

CHURCH APPLICATION VINDICATED BY THE FACTS. 

In regard to the action of the Church at the North, its 
several branches have applied to the War Department for 
a " permit" or a " passport," that their ministers might go 
within the lines of the army, and occupy the vacant pul- 
pits of the South, from some of which disloyal ministers 
had fled within the rebel lines, and from others of which 
they had been ejected by the Government. In its essence, 
this is all that the application involves. And what is it ? It 
is precisely similar, and nothing more, than the permission 
which is sought and obtained from the War, Treasury, 
Navy, and State Departments, for citizens to exercise 
their business, trade, or profession, of a secular character, 

and subsistence, when it can be done without prejudice to the service and will 
afford them courtesy, assistance, and protection. By order of the Secretary of War. 

"£. D. Tov>-}iSENi>, Assistant Adjutant-General." 

" Hkad-Qtjarters, Norfolk and Portsmouth, 
"Norfolk, Va., Feb. 11, 1864. 
" General Orders. 2^o. 3.— All places of public worship in Norfollv and Port'?- 
mouth are hereby placed under the control of the Provost-Marshals of Norfolk and 
Ports iiouth respectively, who shall see the pulpits properly filled bv disphicin"- 
when necessary, the present incumbents, and substituting men of known loyalty 
and the same sectarian denomination, either military or civil, subject to the 
approval of the Commandm.ir General. They shall see that the Churehes are open 
freely t(» all officers and soldiers, white or colored, at the usua; hour of worship ard 
at other times, if desired, and they shall see that no insult or indignity be ollered to 
them, either by word, look, or gesture, on the part of the congregation. The mces- 
sary expenses will be levied, as far as possible, in accordance with the previous 
usages or regulations of each congregation respectively. No property shall be re- 
moved, either juiblic or private, without permission from these he;i(l-quarter'< t5v 
command of ^E. A. Wild, £r iff.- Gencr'ur' ' 



240 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

within the " seceded" States, or within the lines of the 
Federal army, or to go there at all for any purpose / the 
conditions being that the business, in the judgment of the 
Government, shall be proper in itself, and warranted by 
the circumstances of the case and the state of the country, 
and that the persons concerned in it shall be loyal. 

The Church looked at the simple facts^ that many 
Southern pulpits were vacant, and that others would 
become so as our armies should advance ; that Southern 
ministers had abandoned and had been driven from their 
positions ; and that the Government would not allow any 
but loyal men to fill their places. Besides this, tens of 
thousands of freedmen, women, and children, were as 
"sheep without a shepherd." The Gospel, therefore, 
would not be preached at all to multitudes of people, 
white and black, many of whom were loyal, and would 
gladly welcome it, unless the Government should open 
the way. Under these circumstances, was the Church 
doing wrong or right in asking the sanction of the 
Government, — obtaining a " permit," for it was no more 
than that, and just what is sometimes done on heathen 
ground, — to " go into all the South and preach the Gospel 
to every creature ?" Looking at the facts alone, it is 
clear that the Church at the North has done nothing 
more than her duty. Had she not done it, she would 
have been verily guilty before God, and the blood of 
multitudes of souls would have been found upon her. 
We do not say what might or might not have been the 
duty of the Church, in this case, had the application been 
denied. It is not necessary to raise any question of the 
Church's duty to preach the Gospel, even in the face of 
opposition from the civil power. That has nothing to do 
with the present issue. This, however, may be said, as a 
principle universally applicable, — that, if the civil power is 



CHIEF GROUND OF COMPLAINT. 241 

opposed to the Church's proper work, the Church should 
seek to conciliate rather than disregard such opposition. 
In this case, we simply look at the facts as they are. 
The Church could not send men South to preach without 
permission of the Government, or provoking its hostility. 
It Avas, then, its duty to ask permission to go within the 
lines of the army, and, if granted, to accept it, provided 
the work itself was proper. The actual condition of the 
South reveals the duty, and the application vindicates the 
Church in seeking to discharge it in a way not to provoke 
collision with the Government. 

CHIEF GROUJSTD OF COMPLAESTT. 

But suppose the Church, looking beyond the facts, 
should entertain the question, whether she might not, in 
this course, be conniving at a great wrong done by the 
Government to the Southern people ; how would her con- 
duct be affected? This brings up the other side of the 
case. It is no doubt here that The True Presbyterian^ 
and those who agree with it, found their great objection, 
denying that the Government has any right to take pos- 
session of the Southern Churches, or turn them over to 
loyal men from the North or elsewhere ; and that the 
Church, in asking and accepting this from the Govern- 
ment, is guilty of compounding a felony with the State. 
Dr. Robinson speaks as follows upon this point : 

When the Administration, or any of its functionaries, obtrude 
themselves into the affairs of religion, and undertake to direct tlie 
affairs of Christ's kingdom, from which they are restrained both by the 
law of Christ and the Constitution of the country, we are obliged to 
treat them as any other false teachers and usurpers in tlie Christian 
commonwealth. * * * It comes to settling the powers of civil and 
military government over religion. * * * The people of the country 
will surely be slow to recognize such powers over religion in this 
Government ; for who knows how soon the order may be extended to 



242 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

embrace Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, as well as Missouri, 
Tennessee, etc. ? 

When the cases become similar in Ohio, New York, 
and Pennsylvania, and through treason and rebeUion the 
ministry and people of the Churches in those States turn 
traitors, and their pulpits become vacant, as is now the case 
all through tlie South within the lines of the Federal armies, 
then " the order may be extended to embrace" them also, on 
the ground of the most unquestionable principles of public 
law, as recognized among all nations. It is on this ground 
that the course of the Government toward disloyal minis- 
ters and people at the South is justified. 

GOVERNMENT AND CHURCH VINDICATED BY THE LAW. 

The laws of war regard all citizens of a hostile nation 
as public enemies, whether actnaliy engaged in war or 
not.* When a nation is engaged in civil war, and, as in 
the present case, is attempting to put down a rebellion 
undertaken by organized States, all persons within the 
territory in rebellion aie in like manner deemed enemies 
of the Government. This is settled public law among all 
nations ;f and it has been so held in regard to the present 
rebellion, by the Supreme Court of the United States. 

But the case immediately in hand goes far beyond this. 
It concerns ministers and churches that are notoriously in 

* " It is understood that the whole nation declares war against another nation ; for 
the sovereign represents the nation, and act-; in the name of the whole society ; and 
it is only in a body, and in her national character, that one nation has to do with 
another. Hence, these two nations are enemies, and all the subjects of the one arc 
enemies to all the subjects of the other. In this particular, custom and principles 
are in accord. * * * Since women and children are subjects of the Staie, and 
members of the nation, they are to be ranked in the class of enemies. But it does 
not thence follow that we are justifiable in treating them like men who bear arms, 
or are capable of bearing them. It will appear in the sequel, that we have not the 
same rights against all classes of enemies." — Vattel, b. 3. ch. 5. 

t *" It is very evident that the common laws of war ought to be observed by both 
parties in every civil war."— ForteZ, b. 3, ch. IS. 



GOVERNMENT AND CHURCH VINDICATED. 243 

open rebellion, and are among the leaders in the revolt. 
What the Government has done is to recognize these 
facts, and to assume control of the property which these 
fugitive rebels left behind them, and which had been used 
against the Government. So far as this church property 
is concerned, the Government might have confiscated 
every dollar of it to its own use by the regular operation 
of military law ; for, notoriously, these abandoned pulpits 
were the places which bred and fostered treason, and with- 
out which the rebellion would never have had more than an 
abortive birth ; and they were the most powerful instigators 
of the war against the Government, up to the very 
moment its armies reclaimed the ground on which they 
were built.* 

When Admiral Farragut captured oSTew Orleans, he or 
General Butler might have taken Dr. Palmer's Church for 
a hospital, or for any other military purpose, and the 
Government might retain it forever as such, a standing 
monument to the infamy of his treason ; for the trustees, 
elders, pew-holders, and all claiming an interest in the 
property, had permitted him from that pulpit to assail the 
Government with his unwonted eloquence, and to urge the 
people to open rebellion against its authority. All property, 
public or private, used in open aid of war, is liable to 

* " When once we have precisely detormined who our enemies are, it is easy to 
know what are the things belonging to the enemy (res hostiles). We have shown 
that not onl}' the sovereign with whom we are at war is an enemy, but also his 
whole nation, even the very women and children. Every thing, therefore, which 
behtngs to that nation, — to the state, to the sovereign, to the subjects of whatever 
age or sex, — every thing of that kind, I say, falls under the description of things be- 
longing to the enemy." — Vdttel, b. 3, ch. 5. "We have a right to deprive our enemy 
of his possessions, of everything which may augment his strength and enable him 
to make war. This everyone endeavors to accomplish in the manner most suitable 
to him. Whenever we have an opportunity, we seize on the enemy's property, and 
convert it to our own use; and thus, besides diminishing the enemy's power, we 
augment our own, an<l ol)tain, at least, a partial indemnification or equivalent, either 
for what constitutes the subject of the war, or for the expenses and losses incurred 
in its prosecution, — in a word, we do ourselves justice."— T'&icZem, b. 3, ch. 9. 



244 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

coiiclemnation on its capture. ISTo principle of public law 
is more fully laid down by all writers on the Laws of 
Nations and t!ie Laws of War than this ; and it a})p]ies to 
the vast majority of Church edifices throughout tlie South. 
By their being used as among the most powerful means 
for su.-5taining and prosecuting the war, the Government 
has an indefea^ble title to use them if it can capture them ; 
to eject disloyal ministers and people from them, and to 
ap])ropriate them to any proper purpose in maintenance 
of its just authority. 

■ But what has the Government actually done ? It has 
preserved these Churches for religious worship, and has 
simply taken a course which would secure loyal men to 
occupy their pulpits. This is the whole case, and the 
Government stands justified, while in fact it might have 
appropriated them to other uses. 

And what has the Church done ? Its course is fully 
vindicated both by the facts and the law. 

And yet a howl of indignation has come over from 
the city of Toronto, week after week, and has taken form 
in traitorous paragraphs in the city of Louisville, and its 
senseless bellowings are echoed through the land to 
frighten pious and timid women, 

VINDICATED BY REBEL AUTHORITY. 

If Dr. Robinson is willing to receive in.structioji touch- 
ing the relations of Church and State, bearing directly 
upon the point in hand, we refer him to a teacher 
whom at least he ought to respect. It comes from the 
pen of Dr. Thornwell. It is found in the " Address of 
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the 
Confederate States of America," which was republished 
in Louisville with commendation, and with which Dr. 
Robinson probably had something to do. The following 



GOVERNMENT VINDICATED BY REBELS. 245 

sentences from that Address are all that are necessary for 
our present purpose. 

When the State makes wicked laws, contradicting the eternal princi- 
ples of rectitude, the Cliurch is at liberty to testify against them, and 
humbly to petition that they may be repealed. In like manner, if the 
Church becomes seditious, and a disturber of the peace, the State has a 

EIGHT TO ABATE THE NDISANUE. 

That is good doctrine, and we commend it to Dr. Robin- 
son's acceptance. It comes from a man for whom he has 
always, with ourselves, had a high admiration. And 
besides, it is the doctrine of the whole "Confederate Gen- 
eral Assembly," for this Address was " unanimously 
adopted by the Assembly." It is true, indeed, that they 
write their own condemnation, for no nation under heaven 
ever tolerated a class of men within it who were more 
" seditious," and were more influential " disturbers of the 
peace," than these same men have been during this whole 
rebellion ; but that does not afliect the matter ; it is sound 
doctrine, nevertheless. 

We insist, then, that the case shall be tried upon their 
own principles. The Government has done nothing more 
than carry out the law as here laid down. If any foct is 
well established, it is that the mass of the Southern 
Churches, led by their ministers, have ^one heart and soul 
into the rebellion and the war against the Government. 
These Churches have been recruiting agents for the rebel 
armies, and many of their ministers are now commissioned 
officers in them. For this course of the Southern Church, 
the Government, upon their own showing, " has a right to 
abate the nuisance." This only is what it is doing, and 
the manner of the abatement is mild and gentle, infinitely 
more so than what simple justice would sanction, but 
probably dictated by sound policy. It merely forbids these 
" seditious" men and " disturbers of the peace" to occupy 



2 !6 CLERICAL DISLOYALTY IN LOYAL STATES. 

tlie pulpits they have profaned, and turns them over to 
men who will preach the Gospel instead of treason, and 
who will enjoin obedience to lawful authority instead of 
rebellion against it. Its course stands approved by the 
laws of God and man, as these laws are understood by the 
rebels themselves. It is condemned by certain men in the 
Border States and elsewhere, because they are hostile to 
the Government and in sympathy loith its enemies. 

We have now shown, in a few examples, that there is 
disloyalty of the rankest kind among the ministers of the 
Gospel in some parts of the loyal States. These cases will 
serve to illustrate others. That such deeds should be per- 
mitted, is proof of the leniency of the Government ; that 
they should pursue such a course, is proof of their deep 
guilt, and of their utter insensibility to the prime obliga- 
tions of citizenship. We shall see, in a subsequent chapter, 
how such things are regarded, and what punishment is 
justly due them, in the judgment of their Southern friends. 



THE CHUECH ON DISLOYALTT. 247 



CHAPTER Yn. 

THE CHURCH, NORTH AND SOUTH, ON DISLOYALTT. 

The contest in which the nation is now engaged for its 
life, has brought into discussion, both among politicians 
and churchmen, many important principles regarding men's 
duties and rights under civil government. Among them 
are the relations of the Churcli and the State, in the differ- 
ent splieres marked out for them by that divine authority 
on which, as organizations, they both rest ; and the respon- 
sibilities and immunities of citizens in regard to their civil 
and religious character. 

The pi-inciples involved in these branches of the general 
subject are always theoretically important. At the present 
moment, within the United States, they are more practi- 
cally and vitally so than they have ever been before. They 
affect more numerous classes, a greater multitude of indi- 
viduals, and more widely extended interests, relating to the 
political, social, and moral welfare of the whole people, in 
every section of the country, than has been the case at any 
previous period in our history. Personal liberty, of speech, 
of the press, and of action ; reputation and character for 
good citizenship and for piety on the one hand, and a wreck 
of these on the other ; property, and even the means of 
earning one's bread and educating one's family ; the good 
or bad name which a man will consign as a heritage to his 
children ; the punishment from the authorities of his 
country, if he prove false to her interests in a time of civil 
peril, or, if he escape that, the judgment which may over- 
take him from God ; these are only the obvious bearings 
which the case presents. 



248 THE CHUKCII OX DISLOYALTY. 

It is not our purpose to go into a full discussion of tins 
broad subject iu this place. Each branch of it would 
require more space than we can devote to the whole. 
There are a few points, however, which it is essential to 
consider, to meet the demands of the general object which 
this volume is designed to serve ; and these we propose to 
view chiefly in a practical rather than a theoretical light, 
and to note the principle which is sanctioned from the 
action which is taken upon it. 

ALL MEN SUBJECT TO CIVIL AUTHORITY. 

The authority of civil government extend to all men, 
and all organizations of men. It rests ultimately upon the 
fact that civil society is ordained of God. This is declared 
in His word. The first civil duty of every citizen, there- 
fore, is to render obedience to the lawful government 
under which he lives. When he violates this duty, he 
puts himself without the pale of its protection, and renders 
himself liable to punishment. There can be no exception, 
in either of these aspects, — as to the duty, or the conse- 
quences of failure to discharge it, — in the case of any per- 
sons or classes of persons. These are obvious truths, and 
are commonly admitted. 

OBEDIENCE TO CIVIL AUTHORITY A RELIGIOUS DUTY. 

If civil society is ordained of God, and if civil govern- 
ment derives its authority from Him, then obedience to 
civil rulers is not only a civil but a religious obligation ; 
and hence it foUow^s, that any infraction of this duty, either 
in omission or commission, is not only an offence against 
the laws of the land, but is a sin against God. Here, like- 
wise, til ere are no exemptions. The religious as well '". 
the civil sanction binds all men, wdiether they beUevp in 
God or deny Him, whether they have religious aH jctions 



MINISTERS TO PREACH SUBJECTION. 249 

or are corrupt. The obligation is perfect, and if clisre- 
gnrded or violated, the sin is complete; and they rest upon 
God's ordinance, nnd not upon men's views of it or their 
feelings in regard to it. An atheist is bound to render 
obedience to civil authority as really as any one else, and 
if he fills short of this he sins as really as any other peison. 
His unbelief can neither destroy his obligation nor cancel 
his guilt. 

While this is so, the weight of obligation and the 
heinousness of guilt may be affected by men's light and 
advantages. This all men admit, and this the Scriptures 
teach. Hence, a man who has been taught from childhood 
to render religious obedience to civil authority, and in 
whose soul dwells the power of divine grace, — who recog- 
nizes the full weiorht of Christian oblication in all thincrs, 
and gives to it the voluntary homage of his lieart, — is 
deemed a far more guilty man, when he commits treason 
against his country, than is he who commits the same 
crime and yet who has enjoyed none of these advantages, 
but has been sunk in ignorance and corrupting immoralities 
all his life. This doctrine commends itself to every man's 
common sense, and has the sanction of Scripture. 

MINISTERS TO PREACH SUBJECTION. 

The same doctrine holds good in the practical applica- 
tion of the principle to ministers of the Gospel. They with 
all other men are bound to render religious obedience to 
the civil authority. But in the sight of God, simple obedi- 
ence on their part, while a high duty in itself, is at the 
lowest point in the scale in this class of their duties. They 
are not only to obey tlie powers that be, but they are in 
this to be an example to others ; and, above all, they are to 
preach this truth to the people; to give instruction in all 
the principles of God's word in regard to obedience, to 



250 THE CHURCH ON DISLOYALTY. 

point out the obligation, and to hold up the guilt of vio- 
lating it. 

Nor are they to deal in vague generalities and abstrac- 
tions on this theme, any more than upon any other doctrine 
of the Scriptures. They are to point out in what obedi- 
ence consists, what it involves, and what it demands, in 
heart, word, and deed, just as in regard to any other reli- 
gious duty ; and they are to declare wherein it may be 
viohited in any of these respects. They are to endeavor 
to make this as plain, both regarding the duty and the sin 
of violating it, as any doctrine of salvation, for all are alike 
from God ; and, indeed, if duty and sin are involved herein, 
even salvation may be endangered or promoted by a wrong 
or right direction given to the judgment, heart, conscience, 
or conduct, in reference to this as truly as to any other 
subject of revelation. In a word, all that God has declared 
upon these themes, the minister is bound to unfold to the 
people. 

OMISSION OF THIS DUTY A SIN. 

K such be the weight of obligation resting upon a minis- 
ter, under such a view of his office, his guilt must be cor- 
respondingly great if he barely omit this branch of his 
public duty. The failure to instruct the people upon these 
themes, to the full extent that they are revealed in the 
Scriptures, becomes, in him, a heinous sin ; for he is placed 
in the pulpit by the authority of God for this very purpose. 

It may be further true, that the time when especially 
this duty should be fully met, is the time when men openly 
set at naught these obligations, — when they turn against 
the authority of lawful civil rulers, and combine and con- 
spire together for its overthrow; and more especially may 
this be true when so great a scandal rests upon the Church 
itself, when the people of God, to so great an extent, meet 



THE CROWNIXG GUILT. 251 

in Ilis sanctunry to hear His law from the priest's lips, and 
then turn deliberately against that lawful Government 
which God in His providt nee has placed over them ; and 
most conclusively nmst tliis be the time for God's ministers 
to cry aloud and spare not, when the members of his 
Church extensively engage in the work and guilt of treason 
and rebellion with others not only, but when they take 
the foremost ranks in the movement, and plead rehgious 
obhgations as a justification. Then, above all times, is it 
a minister's duty to declare the law of God, and warn his 
people of sin. If he omit it, he is verily guilty. If he dis- 
charge it, he is but doing his official work. 

THE CKOWNING GUILT. 

What, then, must be thought of that class of ministers 
whose gtiilt consists not merely in the omission of this 
duty, but Avlio publicly and privately counsel open resist- 
ance to the civil authority? — who prostitute the pulpit to 
preaching rebellion against their civil rulers, and who be- 
come leaders in a stupendous revolution against a popular 
Government, and the open advocates of war upon it which 
is slaying millions of their fellow-countrymen, and filling 
the land with widowhood and orphanage? 

And what shall be thought of the religious press which 
openly teaches such doctrines, and becomes the most 
powerful ally, with the pulpit, in leading the people of 
God into these crimes ? Under the garb of religious doc- 
trine, it teaches that which is at war with its first prin- 
ciples ; under a pretence of piety, it openly encourages 
sin ; with the plea of serving God, it is the most powerful 
agent of the devil ; pretending to a regard for human life, 
a desire for peace, and a horror of blood and carnage, it is 
directly aiding those who have raised the standard of a 
bloody rebellion against a Government which, by the con- 
12 



252 THE CIILTKCH ON DISLOYALTY. 

fession of their ablest statesmen, never injured them, and 
whose power and patronage had always been in their 
hands. 

If guilt surpassing this has ever been committed, since 
time began, among so enlightened a people, and under 
pretence of religion^ the case has entirely escaped our 
notice. 

DISLOYALTY PUNISHABLE BY THE STATE. 

It becomes an inteiesting question, What does disloyalty 
deserve, and who may mete out its punishment? Upon 
this men have disagreed, and do still. 

That the civil authority ra.".y punish it, no one doubts. 
Treason, its highest type, is a crime committed diiectly 
against the State. It seeks the overthrow of its authority, 
or the destruction or usurpation of the Government. In 
all countiies it is regarded as the hiizhest of crimes, for it 
perils the Government and all it guards, and hence it is 
generally punishable with death, though S(nne degrees of 
it with banishment or with the heaviest civil disabilities. 
The Constitution of the United States defines treason, and 
the laws enacted under it declare the penalty of death. 

There is also misprision of treason, and there are other 
crimes which come under the general designation of dis- 
loyalty. As these, in all their grades and degrees, are 
crimes against the State, they may be punished by its 
authority. 

We of course use the term " loyalty" not in any legal, 
but wholly in a popular sense. We are not aware that 
the word is fo' nd in any of our statute laws as a legal 
term. But this is of no consequence ; all understand what 
is meant by it, as applied in tiie contest now raging in our 
country. Nor is it of the least moment where, how, or 
when, the term originated. It is amusing to eee how 



WHAT LOYALTY AND DISLOYALTY AKE. 253 

many words have been wasted in an attempt to show that 
loyalty aud disloyalty can have no application to the people 
in our civil war. It is of no manner of importance that 
" loyalty" was formerly used to express attachment to the 
sovereign and the reigning family in monarchical coun- 
tries. It has become popularized in the United States, 
and at the present moment expresses attachment to the 
Government now imperilled and a desire for its mainte- 
nance against the rebellion seeking its subversion. 

WHAT LOYALTY AND DISLOYALTY ARE. 

Loyalty means faithfulness to the obligations of law ; 
obedience to lawful authority. Men will differ as to 
whether a certain act or line of conduct is loyal or dis- 
loyal^ according as they define these terms. The guilt or 
innocence of a person on trial for any crime, must be 
determined by the facts and circumstances of the particu- 
lar case, and which may not belong to any other case ; nor 
would full light be thrown upon the proper result by the 
most accurate verbal definition of the crime under which 
he were arraigned. 

It is of little practical avail, therefore, that men differ 
upon the meaning of the term " loyalty." It is of far more 
importance that they agree upon the duty of manifesting 
it in support of the Government, eren though they differ 
as to the manner and degree in which such manifestation 
should l)e evinced. For ourselves, we deem it a citizen's 
duty to sustain the Government m. puttiny dovm the rebel- 
lion hj fxW the j)Ower he can command; by his personal 
influence, by word and deed, by his purse, his sword, and 
his prayers. By putting it down, we mean, destroying it 
root and branch., crushing the life out of it., and putting it 
forever past the faintest hope of resurrection ; and we are 
free to say, that we value that citizen's loyalty at a very 



254 THE CnUKCH ox DISLOYALTY. 

low figure which does not come up to that point. It is 
worth nothing, and may be worth infinitely less than 
notliing ill such j)erils as are now upon tiie nation, — yea, 
may be counted upon the other side, — unless it be openly 
demonstrative, in all proper ways, times, and places, in 
sustaining the Government against its deadly foe. 

DISLOYALTY PUNISHABLE BY THE CHURCH. 

We have seen that disloyalty is punishable by the State. 
It is equally clear that it is punishable by the Church. 
Men have differed upon this point, and do still, as they do 
upon other matters that are plain. We cannot expect 
them to agree in those things in which their prejudices 
are deeply enlisted, until they are willing to lay them 
aside. It is perfectly demonstrable, however, that dis- 
loyalty is an offence of which the Church may take cogni- 
zance. 

In saying this we wish not to be misunderstood. We 
have indicated what, ^er5o?2a//y, we deem to be genuine 
loyalty for every citizen of the United States in this time 
of civil peril. We do not, however, announce that as a 
standard for the Church, on which she should act in eccle- 
siastical discipline ; nor do we lay it down as a standard 
for other men. To his own Master each one standeth or 
falleth. We give it, simply, as our own view of what 
duty demands. It is out opinion / nothing more. We 
allow other men to have theirs. 

But that disloyalty is an ecclesiastical offence which the 
Church may consider and judge^ is something higher than 
mere opinion. It follows inevitably from the teachings 
of the word of God. Wbat loyalty and disloyalty are, in 
any case that may come before the Church for adjudica- 
tion, those who have to deal with it must determine ; for, 
as before observed, each case must be settled by the facts 



REASONS F0U2^DED OX REVELATIOX. 255 

and circumstancGS -which are peculiar to it. But that the 
principle of disloyalty is such that it may involve an 
ecclesiastical ofience by tlie word of God, is beyoud 
doubt ; and it is only to the principle that we now give 
any consideration. 

KEASOXS FOUXDED OX EEYELATIOX. 

The doctrine we maintain arises inevitably from the 
nature and duty of obedience to the civil authority. The 
nature of the obedience enjoined is religious. It has God's 
highest sanctions. To violate the injunction is sin. Sin 
is to be removed by inculcating truth ; and when it breaks 
out in open acts of scandal, it may be met by ecclesiasti- 
cal supervision, trial, and censure. TMs is the case with 
every grade and kind of offence which affects private or 
public morals, or the welfare of society, or the influence 
and good name of religion among men. 

Disloyalty is no exception to this. Open disobedience 
to rulers, when it manifests itself in disturbing or threaten- 
ing the peace of society, or aims or connives at resistance 
to lawful authority, or subverting the Government, is a 
sin and a scandal by the word of God; and if conimitted 
by a member of the Church, he may be arraigned and 
punished for it as clearly as for any other scandal. If not, 
why not ? Is it because this is a civil offence, and punisha- 
ble by the State ? So is arson, so is murder, so is fraud ; 
and yet, will a man pretend that one may burn down his 
neighbor's house, or take his life in cold blood, or cheat 
him out of his property, and not be disturbed by the 
Church, because the State may take cognizance of these 
offences ? This is in the highest degree preposterous. 
Nor is it enough that the State does actually punish for 
these crimes ; the Church may also inflict censure for 
them, in the same case, in the person of the same indi- 



256 THE CHURCH ON DISLOYALTY. 

vidua! on whom the State has inflicted its highest sentence. 
It would be a singular spectacle to behold a man incar- 
cerated justly as a civil penalty for forgery, and yet the 
Church take no action, and he, in consequence, remain in 
good standing, on the ground that he was already suffer- 
ing punishment from the State. ISTor, on the other hand, 
is the Church to be governed or limited by the State in 
such cases. The State is not infallible. A man may be 
punished unjustly. If the victim of tyranny, or prejudice, 
or ignorance, or incompetency, be a member of the 
Church, the whole case may be ecclesiastically considered 
and decided, notwithstanding the State may have acted 
upon it. The Church is not bound in such case by what 
the State has done, so far as to be debarred an adjudica- 
tion ; and if, in her judgment, her member is oppressed, 
she may so declare. She may consider the testimony, 
conduct the case by her own rules of proceeding, and 
come to a decision independent of the State and contrary 
to its judgment. She cannot release from prison, nor 
restore to life, but she may place the man in good stand- 
ing withhi her pale, and show the most clear reasons, it 
maybe, for her decision; aiid in nothing of this does she 
show the least insubordination or disrespect towards the 
civil authority, but may be entirely submissive to it. All 
this arises from the fact that the rcvspective jurisdictions 
of the Church and the State, though embracing the same 
persons and covering the same offences, have different 
spheres to fill, and different ends to serve, in their cogniz- 
ance of the same conduct. 

SPIRITUAL JURISDICTION^ BROADER THAN CIVIL. 

But the difference between these separate ruling powers 
does not stop here. The spiritual jurisdiction is both 
deeper and broader than the civil. It embraces offences 



SPIRITUAL JUEISDICTION BEOADEE THAN CIVIL. 257 

which the latter does not toucli ; and in those which the 
civil power does consider, there are moral elements which 
the spiritual power ahme deems important. There are a 
multitude of offences, any one of whicli, habitually com- 
mitted, would destroy a man's standing in the Chm'ch, 
and upon trial would cast hiui out of it ; and yet, though 
guilty of all of them, his good standing before the law^s 
of the land would not be affected. And there are grades 
of the same radical offence which the Church holds to be 
stamped wdth guilt, but which the State overlooks. A 
man may be guilty of "perjury," and the State will punish 
him; but nil f^ilse swearing, or false statements under 
oath, are not "legal perjury." But by the law^s which 
regulate ecclesiastical discipline, lying, deception, false- 
hood, — all which enter into the moral elements of perjury, 
— are themselves offences which the Church may consider, 
whether committed under oath or not. A variety of hear- 
ings and pleadings in almost any case before a Church court, 
which a civil court w^ould not consider, or would rale out 
entirely, may be deemed important, and may be decisive of 
the result which is reached. The principle here involved 
is of the highest moment. The jurisdiction of the Church, 
as embracing a man's con<luct, or as cognizant of any act 
of his life, reaches where the State cannot go, because its 
rule is spiritual, and deals primarily with the heart and 
conscience ; and although in actual discipline the Church 
deals only with acts, there are classes of actions and ele- 
ments of conduct which are deemed proper for its con- 
sideration which do not come within the civil statute. 

This may be illustrated in regard to the offence of dis- 
lovalty. Who will prt<end to say, that, because a man 
may not have committed "treason" in the technical sense 
of the statute, he may not have been actually guilty of it 
before the law of God ? or that, because there may not be 



258 TUE CHURCH ON DISLOY/vLTT. 

ground for prosecution before a civil court for that offence, 
it therefore follows necessarily that there cannot be ground 
for charges before a spiritual court ? To decide that there 
cannot be, is to decide that the Church must simply fol- 
low in the wake of the State ; to take the position that 
only offences of the same nature belong to both ; to con- 
found the jurisdictions, which are distinct, into one; to 
join together what God has forever separated. Any per- 
son may be safely challenged to point out where such a 
position is sustained by the word of God. It is, there- 
fore, a totally erroneous doctrine to maintain that the 
Church cannot go beyond the State in inquiring into this 
or any otlier alleged offence ; or that either is precluded, 
within its own proper sphei-e, from canvassing an offence 
against its own law, by leason of what the other may have 
done or not done. 

DISLOYALTY ACTUALLY CONDEMNED BY THE CHURCH. 

Passing from these abstract principles, we find that the 
Church has sustained them in its actual practice. Nothing 
is better settled in its whole history. Disobedience to the 
civil authority, disloyalty, treason, and misprision of trea- 
son, have alw^ays been treated as ecclesiastical offences. 
This is shown in the records of every Church. Members 
have been excommunicated, and ministers have been de- 
posed, for such offences by the Church; and they have also, 
for the same crimes, been punished by the State. The e 
things have occurred, as is well known, in every country in 
Christendom. 

Sometimes they have occurred in times of quiet, but most 
commonly in times of civil war. We say nothing upon 
the merits of any particular case. Great injustice may 
sometimes have been done in ecclesiastical convictions for 
disloyalty ; while, on the other hand, no doubt, some men 



PKESBYTESIAN CHURCH. DK. M^PHEETERS. 259 

may have gone " unwhipt of justice" by the Church, as 
some will go hereafter. -All we are seeking is the sanction 
of the principle, and we find that abundantly sustained in 
the history of the Church. 

Several of the leading denominations at the North, 
during our present civil war, have acted on the right and 
duty of the Church to discipline their members, and espe- 
cially their ministers, for disloyalty. In some instances 
they have censured, suspended, or silenced them. We 
know nothing of the merits of these special cases, but they 
illustrate the principle, that disloyalty is deemed to be an 
offence within the proper cognizance of the Church. The 
secular prints, in some cases, and at least one " religious" 
journal, have made a great outcry that such proceedings 
were a violation of the Church's spiritual principles, and an 
interference with the rights of the citizen. But all such 
outbursts are senseless, stupid, silly, and have no other 
importance than ihat they give "aid and comfoit" to 
rebels in arms against the Government. The Church has 
as clear a jurisdiction over its ministers and members, 
touching loyalty and disloyalty, as over their conduct 
touching drunkenness or profanity. 

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. DR. MOPHEETERS. 

One of the most noted cases, of recent occurrence, by 
which the doctrine for which we contend has been illus- 
trated by an actual adjudication, is that of the Rev. Samuel 
B. McPheeters, D. D., Pastor of the Pine Street Presbyte- 
rian Church in St. Louis, Missouri. It was decided in the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, at Newark, 
New Jersey, in May last. The trial lasted several days, 
and the decision was given after a full discussion, in which 
Dr. McPheeters and a large number of members of the 
Assembly pnrticijDated. 
12* 



260 THE CHUKCH ON DISLOYALTY. 

It is not necessary for our present purpose to go largely 
into this case, or to discuss its merits, or to pass judgment 
upon the decision. None of these are essential to the im- 
mediate matter in hand, or to an understanding of the prin- 
ciples we are considering. We have only to say of the 
decision, that as it was made by the court of last resort, by 
conscientious and intelligent men, and by a majority of one 
hundred and seventeen to forty-seven, after a full hearing, 
we there let it stand. 

It is proper to say, however, that Dr. McPheeters was 
not on trial before the Assembly on a formal charge of 
disloyalty. Indeed, there were no charges, strictly so 
called, and no testimony in the usual sense, either before 
the Assembly or the court below, on which the case pro- 
ceeded. It was a dissolution of the pastoral relation exist- 
ing between Dr. McPheeters and his congregation, made 
by the Presbytery of St. Louis, and their forbidding him 
to preach, out of which the case grew, and of which Dr. 
McPheeters complained to the Assembly. Irregularities 
in the proceedings, a want of authority in tlie Presbytery 
to act in the premises, gross injustice done to his pastoral 
and ministerial rights, and acting without the wishes of a 
majority of the congregation, were among the things 
chai"ged in the complaint against the Presbytery. The 
merits of the case thus involvdl many radical principles of 
purely ecclesiastical law, and in dismissing the complaint 
and sustaining the Piesbytery, the Assembly overruled the 
grounds on which tlie complaint was based. 

It is nevertheless perfectly clear, that Dr. McPheeters 
regarded himself, and was regarded by his friends, as vir- 
tually on trial for " disloyalty." This is the aspect given to 
the case by the proceedings of the Assembly, by the argu- 
ments on both sides, though not of course by the judgment. 
Disloyalty was the ground of dissatisfaction in a large mi- 



INDIVIDUAL OriNIONS IX THE ASSEMBLY. 201 

nority of his congregation, and this alone led to the action 
of the Presbytery. This is a simple matter of fict, and of 
lecord. The Assembly's decision, by the large vote given, 
was thus deemed a virtual condemnation for disloyalty, 
was foreshadowed in many of the speeches as involving 
that consequence, and has since been so accepted by the 
friends of Dr. McPheeters in their animadversions upon 
tlie proceedings of the Assembly. 

It then appears that the General Assembly of the Pres- 
byterian Church, has virtually sustained the doctrine that 
*' disloyalty" may be treated as an ecclesiastical oflence 
by its action in the case of one of its ministers. 

INDIVIDUAL OPINIONS IN THE ASSEMBLY. 

It must not be supposed that the vote given in the case 
of Dr. McPheeters, is the criterion for determining how 
large a portion of the General Assembly consider " dis- 
loyalty" as a proper offence for ecclesiastical action. On 
the contrary, we have not observed (though, possibly, 
some case may have escaped our notice) that a single 
member took open and distinct ground that disloyalty was 
not a proper subject for Church censure. Certain it is, 
however, that the most distinguished ministers and other 
members of the minority^ as well as Dr. McPheeters 
himself, directly admitted, in their aj-guments, that disloy- 
alty is an ecclesiastical offence. We refer to a few of 
them. 

Dr. McPheeters said in his defence : 

He was prepared to admit that a man might render q> formal obedience 
to all lawful requirements, and so demean himself as to avoid liability 
to punishment, and yet, in times like these, lead such a course as to 
render him a dangerous member of the community, and an intolerable 
citizen of an agitated State. * * * The Assembly must decide what 
liberty the Church will allow her pastors, whose conscientious convic- 
tions lead them to stand aloof, in the pulpit, from the civil strife now 



262 THE CHURCH ON DISLOYALTY. 

desolating the land. This, after all, mder lies the luhole case. * * « 
The Assembly must decide, if they do not sustain this complaint, that 
I cannot preach to Pine street, because, as a minister, I stand aloof 
from civil strife. But if not in Pine street, then nowhere ; for the same 
principle applies everywhere. * * * If he ivas disloyal in any sense 
that should mar his case before this court, he was also guilty of perjury, 
for he had taken an oath of allegiance, and kept it too ; and when he 
was tried, he wished it done on charges regularly tabled. He wished 
evidence ; not in loose statements, innuendoes, and patriotic speeches, 
but evidence under oath. * * * Now, what he had asked as a 
defiance to Ms accusers, he demanded as a right of this Assembly, that 
if any statements were made or insinuations thrown out that he had 
been guilty of such offences, that you will order the Presbytery of St. 
Louis to take up and issue the case. 

Dr. McPheeters thus makes the most explicit acknowl- 
edgment of the right of a Church court to try a person on 
charges of disloyalty. Dr. William L. Breckinridge said 
upon this case : 

It has been attempted to thrust him out of his work among the flock, 
over which the Holy Ghost hath made him overseer, and to brand into 
him a mark of dishonor — with the allegation of that, which on all sides 
is called a crime. * * * He is called a disloyal man — not true to the 
country- -and on this clamor it is attempted to drive him from his work 
in the Church. 

Dr. N. L. Rice took ground that disloyalty was an 
ofleuce which may be dealt with by the Church, and spoke 
as follows : 

We have virtually a minister on trial — virtually oft trial ; visited too 
with the severest penalties that could result from a trial. * * * We 
have been told that a majority of the ministers of the Synod of Missouri 
are disloyal, and, of course, immoral. * * * The real charge brought 
against Dr. McPheeters was disloyalty ; on this the opposition of the 
minority of his Church was based ; on this the allegation of loss of use- 
fulness was founded ; on this charge the Presbytery proceeded. This 
is manifest in all the pleadings there, and in all the pleadings here. 
This was a charge affecting his rnoml cliaracter ; for cUsloyaUy is a sin. 
Had the Presbytery a right to punish him for this sin, and to fix this 
blot upon his character, without arraigning him, and tabling charges, 



INDIVIDUAL 0PI:M0XS IX THE ASSEMBLY. 2G3 

and giving him an opportunity of defence? * * * They enter- 
tained this charge affecting his moral character. * * * If Presby- 
tery beheved that he was disloyal, they should hove tried him, and given 
him the usual opportunity of defence. They did not go far enough, if 
the charge is well founded ; if he was loyal, they have gone too far. 
* * * He (Dr. Rice) did not know whether that brother is loyal or 
not. * * * Prove his disloyalty, and he would go farther than the 
Presbytery went. 

Mr. Cleland said : 

If Dr. McPheeters is guilty of treason — this is the highest crime 
against the laws of God and of man, against the Church and the Com- 
monwealth — Ihen he ought to he suspended from the Church by the Presby- 
tery, and from the gallows by the sheriff of his county ! 

All those whose remarks we have given above voted in 
the minority. Certain friends of Dr. McPheeters, belong- 
ing to the Presbytery that acted on his case, sent a 
"memorial" in his behalf to the General Assembly, in 
which they state as follows : 

He openly announces his recognized obligations to " be subject to the 
powers that be," and his enemies have been challenged in vain to point 
to one word or one act inconsistent with those obligations. Jfsiich ivord 
or act can be fairly pointed out, your memorialists hereby agree to with- 
draw all interest and effort in his behalf, and to consign him to his 
just deserts at the hands of a Presbytery which has shown every dispo- 
sition to deal with him in the utmost severity. 

The foregoing extract, (together with a much larger 
poition of this memorial), we take as we find it embodied 
in .the speech of Dr. W. L. Bieckinridge. 

It thus appears, that not only the Assembly in its virtual 
act, but the minority of the body, in their speeches on the 
case, with Dr. McPheeters and the St. Louis "memorial- 
ists," put themselves on the record in favor of the doctrine 
that a minister may be prosecuted in a Church court on a 
charge of " disloyalty," and that therefore this is an eccle- 
siastical ofience. We trust they will be found standing 
there in any time of future need. 



264 THE CHURCH OHif DISLOYALTY. 



DR. MCPHEETEES ON MILITARY ORDERS. 

We had occasion to notice in the last chapter the malig- 
nant denunciations of T/ie True I^resbi/tenan against the 
Government, for not allowing the ministerial traitors at 
the South to occupy the pulpits from which they had 
preached treason. We showed that the orders of the 
War Department were justified, both by the law and the 
fiicts, in turning the Southern Churches over to loyal min- 
isters ; and that, even according to rebel authority, from 
the " Confederate General Assembly," it was admitted 
that " the State has a right to abate the nuisance," when- 
ever " the Church becomes seditious, and a disturber of 
the peace," as was notoriously the case with the mass of 
the whole Southern Church of all denominations. 

It is but just to allow Dr. McPheeters to be heard on 
this point, as his Church was taken from him by military 
authority. In his late speech in the General Assembly, 
he said : 

It was seized * * * to the exclusion of the session, trustees, 
and its own congregation. He had no wish to arraign or find fault with 
the officers of the Government. He wished to treat them fairly. He 
acknowledged that, in a State convulsed by armed resistance to the 
Government, they would be justified in doing whatever they deemed neces- 
sary for the public saftty, Nor would he have thought them wrong in 
seizing his Church, banishing him from the pulpit, or dragging him from 
the very altar, if he or his people had used these for fomenting treason, or 
in any way opposing the Government. 

We commend these just sentiments, applied here by 
Dr. McPheeteis to himself and Church hypothetically, — 
but true to the letter of the Churches in the South taken 
possession of by the War Department, — to the serious 
consideration of 77^6 True Presbyterian; but we doubt 
wheihcr its conductors are in a state of heart to learn any 



FALSE CRITERION OF LOYALTY. 2G5 

thing even from one for whom they manifest so deep a 
symj^athy. 

Dr. McPheeters might, fm-thermore, become their in- 
structor upon the nature of the order of General Rose- 
crans, which they have so assiduously perverted, if, indeed, 
they were not callous to instruction from any good quarter. 
Dr. Robinson speaks of it, as " Rosecrans's impious and in- 
famous order of Caesar's oath as a qualification for sitting 
in Christ's court." But Dr. McPheeters, in his speech, 
while mentioning his " scruples of conscience which made 
that order a restraint," speaks of it as follows: 

In making this statement, Dr. McPheeters said that the end aimed at 
by the General was a justifiable one, one which it ivas necessary they 
should try to accomplish, viz. : to prevent bodies of men from meeting 
and acting in a way injurious to the State, if there is good reason to sus- 
pect that they will so act. 

One more point of comparison will suffice. Speaking of 
the proceedings of the Assembly in the case of Dr. Mc- 
Phec'ters, Dr. Robinson says: " Others, in the very slang 
of Strong & Co., declared the issue to be, Dr. McPheeters's 
loyalty or disloyalty." But Dr. McPheeters himself, in 
reference to this very issue, said: " This, after all, under- 
lies this whole case."" And so the mass of the General 
Assembly regarded it, the minority as well as the major- 
ity ; and so did the friends of Dr. McPheeters, the St. 
Louis " memorialists." 

FALSE CRITERION OF LOYALTY. 

While the whole Church seem to agree that disloyalty 
is an ecclesiastical offence,— always excepting the Canadian 
exile ?.nd his paper, — it is well to note what is often re- 
sorted to as a standard of loyalty, and which is in reality 
no just criterion at all. 

Nothing has been more common, as a defence against 



266 THE CHURCH ON DISLOYALTY. 

charges of disloynlt}', in the case of certain clergymen, 
than to point to thuir " piety." Our " Southern brethren," 
tlie rankest rebels among them, have had the shield of 
such defences thrown around them; and so have ministers 
in the Border States, and some whose homes are farther 
North. Such a man " cannot be disloyal ; he is a lovely 
character, meek, devoted; his piety is a disproof of the 
charge." Many persons are disposed in this manner to 
shield disloyalty under the garb of piety. This was one of 
the views presented in tlie General Assembly in vindica- 
tion of Dr. McPheeters ; and Dr. Robinson, in his paper, 
speaks of " the universally admitted character of Dr. Mc- 
Pheeters for piety, prudence, and meekness." Nor do we 
call this in question. We judge no man's piety. Our ob- 
ject in referring to this feature of the case, is to present a 
/Southern standard, that we may perceive how these men 
are judged bi/ their frieti<Js. We shad see how clearly 
the "'Confederate Genei-al Assembly," by the pen of Dr. 
Thornwe^, '' unnnimously" write the condemnation both 
of the patriotism and the piety of certain clergymen in the 
Border States and elsewhere. 

In the Address of that Assembly " to all the Churches 
throughout the earth," they formally, solemnly, and " una- 
nimously" declare : 

We cannot condemn a man in one breath as unfaithful to the most 
solemn earthly interests of his country and his race, and commend him 
in the next as a loyal and faithful servant of his God. If we distrust 
his painolism, our confidence is apt to be very measured in his piety. The 
old adage will hold here as in other things, falsus in una, falsus in om- 
nilvs. 

What a withering condemnation is this, of many a 
minister within the loyal States, whose piety should be 
subjected to such a test 1 From the stand-point of the 
nation at large, indeed, it equally condemns the very men 



FALSE CRITEEION OF LOYALTY. 267 

who wrote and published it ; for their " patriotism" may 
not only be " distrusted," but they are in open rebelUou 
against their " country," and are waging a traitorous war 
against their " race." But, without allowing that ethics 
are to be determined or applit^d by hnes of latitude, how 
pointedly does this consign to hopeless disrepute both the 
"piety" and the "patriotism" of many Border State men, 
and of some farther North. "Distrust" of their " patriot- 
ism" rests upon multitudes, while in others disloyalty is 
proved by their deeds; and this is the "Confederate" 
standard for their "piety." How must "our Southern 
brethren" regard such men? 

Take the Border States, for example. They have stood 
by the Government, by overwhelming majorities, in all 
their elections. And yet, many citizens within them, — 
embracing religious men and some ministers, — are deci- 
d. dly in sympathy with the " Southern Confederacy," and 
othjrs hesitate not to declare it, and some labor for its 
success. Can " our Southern brethren" do any thing less 
than despise them for their want of " patriotism ?" — and 
more heartily for their pretension to it ? Can the " Confed- 
erate General Assembly" do any thing less than despise 
their " piety," and abhor their professions of it ? They 
have done both already. If they are honest, they mean 
what they say. 

That, as a general rule, both politicians and clergymen 
in the Rebel States, heartily despise those of their class at 
the North who manifest sympathy for them and a desire 
for their success, — and who are in an underhanded, cow- 
ardly way, working for it, in oj'position to the Govern- 
ment under which they live, — is most unquestionable, both 
from the well-known flicts, and from the common princi- 
ples of human nature. They would trust a hated " Abo- 
litionist" sooner. They may love the treason, but they are 



268 THE CIIFRGH ON DISLOYALTF. 

certain to despise tlie traitor, just as the English did 
Benedict Arnold. We hope all JSTorthern " sympathizers" 
will take comfort from the estimation in which their 
"patriotis:n" and their "piety" are thus held by "our 
Southern brethren." 

GENERAL EOSEORANS's ORDERS. 

It has appeared to us a little remarkable that certain 
military orders of this General, and one in particular, 
should have called forth a condemnation from the religious 
press which we have seen visited upon no other Federal 
Commander. We notice it here, because it stands con- 
nected with the subject we are illustrating. We of course 
looked for nothing more nor less from Dr. Robinson and 
The True Presbyterian. But we did not expect to find 
every religious paper of the Presbyterian Church (we now 
call to mind no exception), and possibly some of other 
denominations, join in this special hue and cry at the time 
the order in question was issued. 

What was the purport of this condemned order ? It 
was issued at a time when the Department of Missouri, of 
which General Rosecrans was in command, was exten- 
sively infested with guerrillas and threatened with rebel 
invasion ; when, in certain parts of the State, and in and 
about St. Louis, citizens claiming to be loyal, and others 
known to be disloyal, were aiding and ready to aid the 
invaders ; when, notoriously, some even of the ecclesias- 
tical bodies, when assembled, would so act, as the authori- 
ties feared, as to end.-mger the public safety, as for example, 
the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and others ; w^hen 
certain religious men were suspected of infidelity to the 
Government, and felt the requisition of an oath of alle- 
giance to be an indignity and a burden ; and w^hen thou- 
sands felt that their property, and the peace and lives of 



GENERAL ROSECRANS's ORDERS. 2G9 

themselves and f:imilies, were at stake. It was under these 
circumstances that the General Commanding issued an 
order, which, from our recollection, was to tliis effect : 
I^rescribing an oath of allegiance to the General Govern- 
ment, as a condition precedent for sitting and transacting 
business in any religious court, conference, or convocation, 
of any Church. This was the essence of the order. 

This order was attacked at the time by religious loyal 
journals, and was condemned by certain speakers in the 
late General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at 
New^ark, as interfering with reUgious freedom, as allow- 
ing the State to determine the qualification for sitting 
in 2, court of Christ. This was urged in discussing the 
case of Dr. McPiieeters before the Assembly. It was said 
that the Presbytery that acted in his case " could not be 
a free Presbytery," because of this required oath.* 

To say that this order " i)rescribes a qualification for a 
seat in an ecclesiastical court," is one of those statements 
which may convey both a truth and a falsehood. It does 
not prescribe such qualification in any improper sense. 
The Government may at all times do what is essential to 
the public safety ; and especially is this true in a time of 
rebellion and civil war, and within the immediate sphere 
of military rule, when the Government is contending for 
its life against enemies within and without. Of iKhat is 
essential in any emergency, the Government and its agents 
must be the sole judges. Nor can they know any distinc- 

* Dr. Rice, with his accustomed caution, said : " He would not go into a discus- 
sion of the military order, requiring men to take a certain oath, hi order to qiuiUfy 
for a seat in ecclesiastical bodies. It Avas certain that many good men could not 
take that oath. Had he been there, he might have taken it ; but when he went to 
Presbytery, he was bound by a previous oath to go into Presbytery by our Book. 
One principle involved in this case is the validity of a Presbytery and of its action, 
when a majority of the body were not there through restraint. Wise and good men 
could not take the oath as a qualiflcntion to attend Presbytery ; they thought it 
compromised their rights of conscience."— P/i^V'?. Presbyterian. 



270 THE CHUECH ON DISLOYALTY. 

tions among citizens by tlieir professions, business, or 
other circumstances; they can know and deal with two 
classes of persons only, friends and foes, the loyal and 
disloyal. Nor, if tliey would save what is at stake, can 
they always w^ait for treason to develop itself in overt 
acts. They may act on reasonable grounds of apprehen- 
sion, with regard to individuals and bodies of men. He 
who denies this, denies the most settled principles of 
public law and the most common usages among all civilized 
nations. 

Now, how do these rules apply to the present case? 
General Rosecrans believed that ecclesiastical convocations 
within his Department needed Avatching, — might act, or 
counsel, or concoct disloyalty, or in some way add to the 
perils v/ith which the people and the Government were 
environed. Any man, having but half an eye open to 
what has occurred in the history of this rebellion, must 
see that there may be ample reason for such apprehensions. 
What, tlien, does he do ? Does he forbid the meeting of 
ecclesiastical bodies ? By no -means. He might even do 
that^ if in his judgment the facts should warrant it. But 
he allows all to meet when and where they please, and sit 
however long, Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentile ; 
only prescribing that they shall take an oath. What ! the 
State prescribe a religious test for the Church ! How 
dreadful ! He prescribes an oath of allegiance to the 
Government of the United States ; that Government 
which protects their assembling by its civil and military 
power ; and, even then, allows a dispensation to all wdio 
had previously taken the oath prescribed by the State 
civil authority, tlie Convention of Missouri ! This is the 
whole of the dreadful thing. 

We should like to know, on what principle of Scripture, 
public law, reason, or common sense, those individual men 



" HONOR TO WHOM HONOR." 2Y1 

composing a body calling themselves "the Presbytery of 
St. Louis," can claim exemption from such a requisiiion ? 
It was just that wliich might be made of a body of mer- 
chants, shoemakers, or any other class of citizens propo- 
sing to assemble. The order regarded religious bodies 
simiply as citizens. It could regard them in no other 
character. It specified them by their ecclesiastical names, 

Conferences, Associations, or whatever terms were used, 

simply as descriptive terras of certain bodies of citizens ; 

just as it might have said of others, Knights of the Golden 
Circle, Red Men, or " Anacondas." 

If the members of the Presbytery of St. Louis, or any 
other ecclesiastical body in that miUtary department, 
cannot take the oath prescribed, so much the worse for 
them. We respect their tender consciences, but they 
need a more enlightened conscience. Without any dis- 
paragement of them personally,— for they are mostly 
strangers, — conscience, in these times, like some other 
mental and moral qualities brought into action, is affected 
by latitude, particularly where it respects taking an oath 
of allegiance to the Government. But be that as it may, 
it cannot be taken as a rule of public duty for the Govern- 
ment, nor be made a criterion by which it is to be 
condemned. 

" HONOR TO WHOM HONOR." 

One word with the religious press. As we have 
already said, so far as we have seen, the religious press, 
with one accord, condemned this order of General Rose- 
crans at the time it was issued. In every instance of this 
condemnation that we saw, the fact was prominently 
brought out that General Rosecrans was a CathoUc, and 
a brother of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cincinnati. 
This was dwelt upon as an important ingredient, as was 



272 THE CHURCH ON DISLOYALTY. 

believed, leading to the issuing of the order. The fact, 
also, was mentioned in at least one religious journal in a 
Metropolitan city, that while commanding the army in 
Tennessee, General Rosecrans never disturbed a Catholic 
Church, while Protestant Churches were freely taken for 
military pai-poses. 

Let us do justice to the patriot-soldier. Let us honor 
the man, if honor is his due, who took the demoral- 
ized army of General Buell, and led it in triumph over 
the terrific fields of Stone River and Murfreesboro', and 
finally planted it in Chattanooga. We claim, personally, 
as strong an adherence to the Protestant faith as any of 
our brethren of the religious press, and yet we honor 
the brave, M'hether commanding an army or standing in 
the ranks, who perils his life to put down this rebellion, 
and save the national flag from disgrace, without inquiring 
of what religious faith he may be. 

As to the reports from Tennessee, about the distinction 
which General Rosecrans made between the Churches, we 
know nothing, one way or the other. But certain things 
which were noticed in the secular prints, just after the 
issuing of the order of which complaint was made, 
occurred in the Department of Missouri, and which we 
searched diligently for in the religious papers, but searched 
in vain. It was stated that General Rosecrans had repri- 
manded or suspended two Catholic priests in Missouri for 
their disloyalty, and that he had, for the same reason, 
forbidden the circulation within his Department of the 
well-known Roman Catholic journal, the Metropolitan 
Record. This is quite enough to relieve him of all sus- 
})icion that he was ini})elled by any sectarian considera- 
tions in giving an order whicli has called forth the strictures 
of religions journals and Church courts. 

Let all men be honored according to their merit, of 



DOOM OF TKAITOES. SELF-COXDEMNATIOX. 273 

whatever religion or nation, whether Jew or Gentile, 
Greek, Barbarian, or Scythian, bond or free, who will help 
us to save the nation by putting down the most godless 
rebellion the sun ever shone upon.* 

DOOM OF TRAITORS. SELF-CONDEMNATION". 

We close this chapter by an extract from Dr. Thorn well's 
Fast-Day Discourse, preached in Columbia, South Caro- 
lina, Nov. 21, 1860, upon the National Crisis then impend- 
ing. It will be another good lesson for disloyalists. We 
commend it to their serious consideration. If it is 
"preaching politics;" if it presents before "traitors" an 
awful doom, and pronounces their " damnation ;" if it seals 
the destiny of him who penned it, and of multitudes of his 
co-laborers in the South ; if it embraces those in the loyal 
States, who, though they have not taken up arms against 
the Government, are doing every thing they dare do to 
aid those who are in arms and in rebellion ; all we have to 

* After this chapter was written, and the stereotyping was nearly completed, the 
Bihlical Repertory for July came to hand (received July 80), in which we are 
glad to find (»ne for whom we entertain so profound a respect as Dr. Hodge uttering 
himself so decidedly, and sustaining the propriety of General Eosecrans's order. 
On reviewing the proceedings of the General Assembly in the case of Dr. McPhee- 
te-rs, and referring to the reasons for non-attendance in the St. Louis Presbytery, 
resulting from that order, he says : " To us it seems that these unfortunate scruples 
are founded in error. There, was no jxiit ground of complaint against General 
Ro>>ecrans^8 order. There Avas nothing therein inconsistent with the inde- 
pendence of the Church or true allegiance to Christ. Suppose the small-p,ox 
had been prevalent in that region, and the authorities of the city had issued an 
order that no one should attend any public meeting, ecclesiastical or secular, who 
did not produce evidence that he had been vaccinated. Would this be an inter- 
ference with the liberty of the Church? Not at all— because the object sought (viz., 
the public health)' was a lawful object; and because the thing demanded (vaccina- 
tion) was something the authorities had a right to demand. So in General Eose- 
crans's order, the objt'ct sought, the public safety, was a legitimate object; and the 
thing demanded, allegiance to the Government, was admitted to be obligatory. In 
our view, therefore, the order in question presented no lawful or reasonable 
objection to a free attendance on the Tresbytery." And more than this, too: "the 
thing demanded, allegiance to the Government," was "obligatory," whether 
" admitted to be" or not. 



274 THE cnuRCii ox disloyalty. 

say is, that it comes from South Carolina, and from one of 
tile ablest divines in any branch of the Church. Though 
the original application was diftcreiit with tlie preacher 
from that now given it, the truth it contains applies none 
the less pointedly to all who are disloyal to the General 
Gov^ernment. 

In reference to our position as a nation before the rebel- 
lion occurred, to our power and destiny among the nations 
of the earth and upon the weli'are of the human rac", and 
to the guilt of destroying the hopes of mankind in this 
nation by rebellion, the eloquent divine thus says : 

The day of small States is passed, and as the federative principle is 
the only one which can guarantee freedom to extensive territories, the 
federal principle must constitute the hope of the human race. It was 
the glory of this country to have first apphed it to the formation of an 
effective Gov^ernment, and, had we been faithful to our trust, a destiny 
was before us which it has never been the lot of any people to inherit. 
It was ours to redeem this continent, to spread freedom, civilization, and 
religion, through the whole length of the land. Geographically placed 
between Europe and Asia, we were, in some sense, the representatives of 
the human race. Tlie fortunes of the world were in our hand. We 
were a city set upon a hill, whose light was intended to shine upon 
every people and upon every land. To forego this destiny, to forfeit this 
inheritance, and that through bad faith, I's an enormitij of treason equalled 
only by the treachery of a Judas, who betrayed his Master with a kiss. 
Favored as we have been, we can expect to perish by no common 
death. The judgment lingers not, and the damnation slumbers not, of the 
rejjrobates and traitors, who, for the wages of unrighteousness, have 
sapped the pillars and undermined the foundations of the stateliest 
temple of liberty the world ever beheld. Rebellion against God, and 
treason to man, are combined in the perfidy. The innocent may be 
spared, as Lot was delivered from the destruction of Sodom ; but the 
guilty must perish with an aggravated doom. 

We trust that for decency's sake nothing may be said, 
henceforth, about what Northern men may think should 
be done with " traitors," when Dr. Thornwell dooms those 



DOOM OF TEAITORS. SELF-CONDEMNATION. 275 

whom he regards as such to something a little more disa- 
o-i-eeable than such a shower of fire and brimstone as came 
down upon the cities of the plain. 

We of course understand what is couched under the 
glowing phrase, that " it was ours to redeem this continent, 
to spread freedom^ civilization^ and religion^ through the 
whole length of the land." We have shown this in a pre- 
vious chapter, when speaking of the Slavery Propagandists 
among whom Dr. Thornwell was a High Priest ; that to 
"redeem" the continent was to convert it into slave terri- 
tory; that "freedom" means the relation of master and 
slave, the slave to come from Africa if he could be obtained; 
the master to be a white man if " rich," or to be a slave 
if " poor ;" that the " civilization" was to be uaiver- 
sally of this type ; and that the " religion" was to be that 
which should sanction all this as " divine," and any thing 
preached in opposition was to be " infidelity" and proof of 
*' apostasy." 

Patriotism and treason are also understood. To be a 
"patriot" was to give heart and soul, tongue, pen, purse, 
and ballot for such a " destiny" to one's country ; and to 
be a " traitor" was to oppose such a destiny, or, if living 
at the South, to hesitate and falter about aiding to bring it 
about. And then so glorious to us and so philanthropic to 
mankind was such a destiny, and so correspondingly deep 
was the guilt of all who were " reprobates and traitors" to 
it, that their "judgment lingers not" and their "damna- 
tion slumbers not," but is rapidly approaching in the form 
of a shower-bath like that which came upon Sodom ! 

Well, gentlemen, -all we have to say, is, that when the 
actual trial and doom of " traitors" shall come, we hope 
you will stand up to it like men, and let justice take its 
couvse. 

13 



276 SOUTHERN PBOVIDENCK IN THJt:; REBELLION. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SOUTHERN PROVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 

The doctrine of a Divine Providence in the affairs of 
men is a tenet of both natural and revealed theology. It 
has been the common beUef of all nations and all times. 
It has been taught by the priests of every sect in religion, 
received by the sages of every school in philosophy, and 
sung by the poets of every age of the world. Tlie bard of 
Avon has but expressed the sober judgment of mankind 
when uttering a sentiment which we may take in its 
utmost latitude of application, — 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will. 

god's providence extends to nations. 

This providence has been conceded to extend to nations 
as truly as to individual men. Without the light of Scrip- 
ture, this has been an accepted truth ; in that light, we 
read it on every page. It is concerned in the birth of 
nations, in their progress, and in their downfiU. It 
attends them in peace and in war, gives them their rulers, 
awards their prosperity and glory, and brings them to 
honor or ruin. In the rise of nations, in their career, in 
their permanent endurance or in their passing away to give 
place to others, — an unceasing round through all the cycles 
of time, — God is but accomplishing His eternal purposes, 
in the execution of which " He doeth according to His will 
in the army of heaven and among the mhabitanta of the 
earth." 



ITS DESIGNS TOWARDS THE UNITED STATES. 277 



ITS DESIGNS TOWARDS THE UNITED STATES. 

It has been the common belief, through every period of 
the comparatively short career of the American people, 
that this doctrine of providence had a special significance 
in its application to this nation, as bearing upon its own 
well-being and that of other nations of the world. The 
time of the discovery of the American Continent, the cir- 
cumstances of its colonization, the character of its early 
settlers, the planting here upon a broad basis of the doc- 
trine of ci\'il and religious liberty, the formation of a 
system of popular government under a written constitu- 
tion, the freedom of the right of suffrage, the universality 
of the means of education, the unrestricted protection -to 
the various forms of religion, the wide domain and 
unlimited resources of a country extending through twenty 
degrees of latitude and fifty-five of longitude, and the 
unsurpassed material prosperity which has been developed 
in the departments of agriculture, manufactures, commerce, 
trade, inventive skill, and the mechanic arts ; all this, 
which had placed the United States, w^ith her more than 
thirty millions of people, in the front rank among the most 
favored nations of the earth, in an age of unparalleled pro- 
gress, had contributed to the fond anticipation, indulged 
down to the period of the rebellion, that God had given 
us a high destiny to fill, of honor to ourselves and of good 
to mankind. When foul treason plotted the overthrow of 
the Government, the hearts of many failed them. They 
were led to think they had wholly misinterpreted the pur- 
poses of God, however plainly they had supposed them 
indicated in the remarkable facts of our history. 

There may have been much of national vanity indulged 
in these glowing prospects ; but many were led to hope 
for their realization, prompted by the purest impulses. 



278 SOUTHERN PEOVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 



THE DEAD FLY IN THE OINTMENT. 

In all the phases of our history, there was one subject 
which gav^e pain and apprehension to many of the more 
sagacious and reflecting. That in a Government conse- 
crated by the blood of martyrs to liberty, and founded on 
the principle announced in its earliest records, — the free- 
dom and equality of rights of all men, — there should be 
incorporated into its supreme organic law a concession in 
several specifications to the bondage of millions of human 
beings, was an anomaly so monstrous as to provoke the 
jeers of foreign despots, and bring down upon the Model 
Rei)ublic the daily growing scorn of the Christian world. 

However men may view the case from our present his- 
torical stand-point, we are not now disposed to bring any 
reproach upon those great men who founded our National 
Government, for admitting that element into its structure. 
Surrounded by the perils which succeeded the Revolution- 
ary War, and under the pi-actical failure of the Articles 
of Confederation, tliey found that " a more perfect union" 
was essential to national existence, and at that time union 
in one nationality could only be secured by the Govern- 
ment they formed. But it is as clearly written upon the 
history of those times as is any other fact of the period, 
that many of the leading statesmen, North and South, who 
were concerned in forming the Constitution of the United 
States, disap})roved of slavery as an institution, and con- 
fidently counted on and desired its termination. King 
Cotton was then in his infancy, or scarcely born, and it 
was not then dreamed that he would ever come to the 
throne and usurp so wide a dominion.* 

*For proof of what is above asserted, that "leadins; statesmen," in the era of the 
formation of the Constitution, "disapproved of Slavery," and "counted on and 
desired its termination," — and that this was " the common sentiment" of that day, — 
we refer to the speech of the rebel Vice-President, quoted on page 49. Mr. Stephens's 



THE IRREPEESSIBLE CONFLICT. 279 



THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 

As in our history we advanced from step to step ; as 
slavery became more profitable and more expanded ; as 
imder its profits, and under the change in sentiment regard- 
ing its character, it became more and more exorbitant in 
its demands, the anxiety concerning its efiect upon the 
destiny of the nation became daily more intense. Under 
the later developments of the character and tendencies of 
the institution, that sentiment which has sometimes been 
attributed to the President, and again to the Secretary of 
State, and for w^hich much reproach has been heaped upon 
them by the rebels and their " allies," — that it were impos- 
sible for this nation to continue half slave and half free, — 
was but the utterance of what a far-reaching sagacity saw 
to be inevitable. It was no incendiary tenet, as shallow- 
brained demagogues have termed it. It was the simple 
announcement of a great fact whose certain coming already 
cast its shadow before. It was but the prediction of an 
" irrepressible conflict" which even some of the fathers of 
the Eevolutlonary era feared^ and which was sure to 
occur in God's own plan. Its undoubted existence in the 
womb of time, the throes and convulsions which its issuing 
forth would occasion, would have been all the same if they 
had not foreseen and declared it. They did not create it. 
They were not responsible for it. It was an inevitable 
outgrowth of the system of Government our fathers 
formed.* 

testimony will be deemed valid, and save the trouble of quoting from the original 
sources. 

* Tiiomas Jefferson announced the "irrepressible conflict." We at present state 
it on the authority of the Rebel Vice-President. In his speech at Savannah, Georgia, 
March 21, 1S61, Mr. Stephens said: "African Slavery as it exists among us— the 
proper status of the negro in our form of civilization—this was the immediate 
cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had 
anticipated this, as 'the rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was 



280 SOUTHEES" PKOVIDENCE m THE EEBELLIOl^". 



THE DIFFICULTY BEYOND HUMAN WISDOM. 

But with all these apprehensions, the wisdom of no man 
in Church or State was equal to grapple with the subject. 
Slavery had so interwoven its power with every element 
of our politics, had so completely subsidized every depart- 
ment of the Government, that the nation stood appalled at 
the threatening danger, while no one could see our way 
out of the labyrinth of difficulties by which we were envi- 
roned. Slavery had become a universal theme for discus- 
sion ; its character, bearings, dangers, extortions ; but no 
one could solve the problems it presented. It had become 
the 2^o?is asinoruin in politics and religion, for statesmen, 
philosophers, divines. We quite agree withDr. Palmer, in 
his Thanksgiving Discourse in New Orleans : 

It is not too mucli to say, that if the South should, at this moment, 
surrender every slave, the wisdom of the entire world, united in solemn 
council, could not solve the question of their disiDOsal. 

This is a sentiment to which probably, at the time it was 
announced, the mass of his countrymen would have sub- 
scribed. But God can easily do what man cannot, and 
that too through man's reluctant agency ; bringing to mind 
another truth in the same discourse : 

Baffled as our wisdom may now be, in finding a solution of this intri- 
cate social problem, it would, nevertheless, be the height of arrogance 

right. What was conjecture with him, is uow a realized fact." Those declaimers 
who deem Mr. Lincoln or Mr. Seward awfully guilty for uttering "that hideous 
sentiment," should vent their wrath upon Mr. Jefferson, and other statesmen of our 
early history. We can excuse some stump orators for their ignorance; but it is a 
sign that the schoolmaster ought to be abroad, when the Legislature of Jefferson's own 
State can commit the blunder of ascribing this saying to Mr. Lincoln as its author. 
The Richmond Enquirer of July 4, 1864, publishes an Address from the Legisla- 
ture of Virginia to the people of that State, in which this sentence occurs: "Mr. 
Lincoln was the author of that hideous sentiment, that the States of the Union could 
not remain part Free and part Slave States— that they must be wholly Free or 
wholly Slave." 



HOPES DASHED AND RAISED AGAIN. 281 

to proncunce what changes may or may not occur in the distant future. 
In the grand march of events, Providence may ivork out a solution undis- 
corerable by us. * * * if this question should ever arise, the gen- 
eration to whom it is remitted vrill doubtless have the wisdom to meet 
it, and Providence will furnish the liglits in which it is to be resolved. 

How little did tlie eloquent divine think, when he was 
uttering this pregnant sentence, so profoundly true, and its 
realization not reserved for " the distant future," but aj^pa- 
rently so near at hand, that he was but as Balaam before 
the hosts of Israel, with a blessing on his lips instead of a 
curse, and that, as God's unwilling Prophet, he was to bear 
so distinguished a part in unravelling the mysteries of His 
inscrutable providence, and in " working out a solution" 
which had so long " baffled the wisdom of the entire 
world." 

HOPES DASHED AND RAISED AGAIN. 

When the rebellion occurred, as we have said, the hopes 
of many regarding our national destiny died within them. 
They verily believed we were now to be dashed in pieces 
as a potter's vessel, and to be blotted out and known no 
more as a great people. They looked upon the war as the 
scourge of God for our great iniquities, and so for undoubt- 
edly they were right; for war is always a judgment for 
sin. But it began early to be believed that God's ultimate 
design was our purification and preservation, and that to 
this end He would in His own way terminate the institution 
wdiich had been seized upon as the occasion of our strife, 
and that when this were accomplished the nation would 
emerge from this furnace, and be prepared for a higher 
career than were otherwise possible. How this was to be 
done, by whom, when, and where a beginning was to be 
made, were problems involved in darkness ; but as events 
have been developed, as the necessities of the war have 



282 SOITTHERlsr PROVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 

arisen, as time has rolled on, as tlie reverses and successes 
of our arms li;ive alternated, — even though " the end is not 
yet," — we think it is not rashly interpreting God's pur- 
poses to say, that in His providence slavery will be removed 
from the land entirely, as the result of that very treason 
and rebellion, darkly concocted and persistently pursued, 
for the express purpose of its more firm and expanded 
establishment. If our Saviour spoke the truth when He 
said, " All they that take the sword shall perish with the 
sword," then, as slavery unsheathed the sword to war upon 
lawful authority, we believe it will perish by the war made 
in the Government's defence. 

And yet, we freely admit that the result may be quite 
different from this. Secret things belong to God only. 
Slavery may be yet longer preserved, to be a scourge to the 
nation. What scheming politicians may plot, what timid 
statesmen may yield, what the people may be willing to 
concede for the sake of ending the war, — and what God's 
real plans may be, to be reached through all these sche- 
mings and plottings and concessions, — we presume not to 
know ; and still, our faith is strong in the ultimate result 
stated, that slavery will, as a consequence of the rebellion, 
be removed, to curse the land no more. 

PROVIDENCE FROM A SOUTHERN STAND-POINT. 

But it is not our purpose to canvass this subject at pres- 
ent. We shall consider it at some length in a succeeding 
chapter, when we come to speak directly of God's provi- 
dential designs in the rebellion. Our object now is to look 
at providence from a Southern stand-point ; to note some 
remarkable thinois in Southern literature upon this theme, 
which the rebellion and the war have developed. 

The leaders of the rebellion have from the first claimed 
for their cause a high character for righteousness, and they 



PEOVIDEXCE FROM SOUTHERN STAISTD-POINT. 283 

have exhibited in its behalf much religious zeal and devo- 
tion. They have always claimed that God was on their 
side, and that the initiatory and subsequent steps of the 
movement were undertaken by His direction. When re- 
counting their military successes (and they have claimed 
a victory on nearly every battle-field), it is wonderful to 
note how their journals, especially the religious, have ever 
found in current events striking evidences of God's favor- 
ing providence.* 

We should suppose that at least religious men, before 
making such a wholesale appropriation, would wait to see 
the outcome ; for God often gives temporary or apparent 
success, where the final upshot is an utter overthrow. But 
so elated have they been at present results, that they have 
often predicted certain ti iumph ; and they have frequently 
so put the case as to be willing that their cause should be 
judged by the determination of the contest. Here again 
they are ethically at fault, for success is not necessarily a 
criterion of merit, nor does virtue always conquer ; and 
yet, without admitting the principle, we are almost willing 
to rest the present case on that issue. We are doubtful, 
how^ever, whether, wdth all their boastings, they will so 
readily abide the judgment wdiich the result may furnish. 
Already, as the contest progresses, we see signs of mis- 
giving, and less confidence expressed in the favor of God 
than formerly. What the bearing of this may be, even 

* In the winter of 1S61-2, after the campaign of the first season of the war was 
over, an "Address to the People of Georgia" was issued, signed by Howell Cobb, 
K. Toombs, M. J. Crawford, and Thomas R. E. Cobb, in order further " to fire the 
Southern heart." This passage on providence will illustrate what we have said 
above: " We have faith in God and faith in you. He is blind to every indication 
of providence who has not seen an Almighty hand controlling the events of the past 
year. The wind, the wave, the cloud, the mist, the sunshine, and the storm, have 
all ministered to our necessities, and frequently succored us in our distresses. We 
deem it unnecessary to recount the numerous instances which have called forth our 
gratitude. We would join you in thanksgiving and praise. ' If God be for us, who 
can be against us ?' We have no fears of the result— the final issue." 
13* 



284 SOUTHERN PROVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 

as modifying their ethics, no one can foretell. That they 
need a modification, not merely upon current events of the 
war, but upon matters which underlie the whole structure 
of human life, is easily made apparent.* 

The providence of God has been so much dwelt upon by 
them in their public journals, debates, and discourses, and 
especially by the clergy, that it becomes a fruiiful theme 
for meditation, as furnishing a marked feature in the moral 
phases of the contest. 

IT UPSETS THEIR THEOLOGY. 

One of the most noted things about the views of the 
clergy among the rebel leaders, is seen in this, — that while 
their devotion to treason, in the interest of slavery, has 
blinded them to the demands of duty to their country, the 
same deyotion has unsettled the foundations of some of the 
prime articles of their religious faith. Their elaborate 

* No one familiar v.'ith the early events of the war, can forgot how the rebels 
exulted that the fleet sent to Charleston, at the time the last effort was made to pro- 
vision Fort Sumter, was dispersed by a storm, so that it could not enter the harbor. 
This gave the rebels an opportunity to complete their plans, and to capture that 
fortress without opposition from the fleet. Its dispersion, thej' said, was " no acci- 
dent," but the very " finger of God was in it," and a sign of His favor to them. We 
accept the doctrine ; God " was in it," but possibly for a difterent purpose than they 
supposed. And so they have exulted almost ever since. Observe, however, one 
among many signs which have occurred more recently, where serious disappoint- 
ments are laid to the account of "accident," and where hope in "Providence" is 
waning. Kemarking upon the "invasion" of Maryland and the threatening of 
Washington in July last, the Richmond Enquirer says : " It is said that a lucky 
aocident alone saved Washington. Canby's Corps, from New Orleans, arrived at 
Fortress Monroe on Saturday night, the very day on which the battle of Monocacy 
was fought, and which revealed to the enemy the magnitude of the danger that 
threatened Washington. Ordered by telegrajih to that city, it arrived there on 
Monday in time to prevent the capture of the city, and to hold the defences until the 
arrival of additional corps from Petersburg bad rendered the storming of the works 
useless. The accidental arrival of Canby saved the city. Had he passed up to 
Grant, or been delayed in his arrival one day longer, Washington would have 
been captured. However great the disappointment may be, yet much has already 
been and much more will be accomplished." No storm delayed Canby "one day 
longer." God " was in it." The Richmond Examiner thus refers to the same inva- 



IT UPSETS THEIR THEOLOGY. 285 

discoursings upon providence furnish a striking illus- 
tration. 

We of course admit, that while the whole world agree 
in holding to a doctrine of providence, men often differ as 
to tlie doctrine itself; as to its extent, whether general 
only or particular, or both ; whether it is concerned only 
in the great affairs of the world, the marked and unusual 
occurrences, or extends to all events alike, great and small ; 
whether it controls and works through the free volitions 
of men, or only reaches outward things ; v/hether its ends 
are accomplished through wicked agents as directly and 
efficiently as through the good and holy, or only through 
the latter ; and a thousand other questions, which theolo- 
gians and metaphysicians have discussed more or less from 
time immemorial. We do not name these differences to 
enter into any examination of them. Our present business 
is more simple. The divines who are foremost in the apo- 
logetical literature of the rebellion, so far as this has come 
more immediately under our observation, and from which 
we cite examples, are of the same school in theology with 
ourselves. They have received the same standards of 
faith, and when adopting them received the doctrine of 
providence therein set forth, which substantially is that 
received by nearly the whole Christian world. We doubt 
whether they ever would have so widely dejarted from 
it under any other influence than that of this rebellion, 

sion : " It must be confessed that our ' invasion' just at this moment looks like one 
of the most paltry affairs of the war. Washington was not taken. Baltimore was 
not taken. The Yankeeized population of Martinsburgh has embraced their towns- 
man Hunter again. Not a bridge of the road between Washington and Baltimore 
■was burned. The road itself was unbroken. What has been done then ? What has 
yet been obtained by these opportunities, — Lynchburg and Washington,— <Ae like of 
which Protidence has not Touchmftd nince the Jirtsi year of the war? One 
house has been burned ; two thousand head of cattle brought off; Major-General 
Tyler and Major-General Franklin were taken prisoners and both permitted to 
escape. * * « Letm hope, and pray, and trust, that the story still is left half t 
told." 



286 SOUTHERN PBOVIDEjS'CE IN THE REBELLION. 

which with them has overturned some of the fundamental 
principles in morals as well as theology. 

THE TRUE DOCTRINE OF PROVIDENCE. 

That doctrine of providence is thus concisely expressed : 
" God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and 
powerful preserving and governing all His creatures ; order- 
ing them, and all their actions, to His own glory." This 
is simple, comprehensive, and unquestionably founded on 
the teachings of Scripture. Its purport is plain. It sweeps 
the universe. It leaves nothing without the control of 
God. Not a sparrow can fall to the ground without His 
notice, nor is a hair of any head unnumbered. It embraces 
men, angels, demons, races of men, nations, families, and 
the concerns and interests of each and of all ; and directs 
all things for great purposes of good to those who love 
God, and for glory to His great name. If the Ruler of the 
Universe is indeed God,- then He will do His pleasure in 
heaven and upon earth, and no being or thing can thwart 
His plans. 

SOUTHERN EXPOSITION OF IT. — DR. PALMER. 

Now observe how some of the high priests of the rebel- 
lion preach upon this doctrine. We will let Dr. Palmer 
lead the way, in his Thanksgiving Discourse before referred 
to. He sets out with the undoubted truth, that nations 
have a special destiny to fulfil in the designs of God ; that 
" a nation often has a character as well defined and intense 
as that of an individual ;" that "this individuality of char- 
acter alone makes any people truly historic, competent to 
work out its specific mission, and to become a fiictor in 
the world's progress." He says, also, concerning the 
crisis then reached, that, "in determining our duty in this 
emergency, it is necessary that we should first ascertain 



PROVIDENCE FRUSTRATED. 287 

the nature of the trust providentially committed to us." 
Having ascertained, as he supposed, what the special trust 
of the South was in the plans of God, he then declares it, 
and gives assurance of providential security in its execution, 
as follows : 

The particular trust assigned to sucli a people becomes the pledge of 
Divine protection, and their fidelity to it determines the fate by which 
it is finally overtaken. What that trust is, must be ascertained from 
the necessities of their position, the institutions which are the outgrowth 
of their principles, and the conflicts through which they preserve their 
identity and independence. If, then, the South is such a people, what, 
at this juncture, is their providential trust ? I answer, that it is to 
conserve and to pe^yeiuate the institution of slavery as now existing. 

PROVIDENCE FRUSTRATED. 

The announcement in the last sentence, declaring what 
the providential trust of the South was understood to be, 
is the substratum of the whole discourse. We do not, 
just here, propose to dispute so remarkable a proposition. 
"We have only given this passage as opening the way for 
exhibiting some views of providence which are quite as 
remarkable ; indicating that the preacher suj^poses it with- 
in the power of man to frustrate God's plans, and betray- 
ing an excited fear not merely that He might do so in 
matters then undeveloped, but charging directly that it 
had already and most grossly been done, as seen in the 
election of the Chief Ruler of a great nation, and in the 
special bearings of that election upon God's providence, 
showing a positive interference by the electors with " the 
particular trust assigned" to the South, in the execution 
of which they had " the pledge of the Divine protection." 
But let the preacher speak for himself: 

All that we claim for them (the slaves) and for ourselves is liberty to 
work out this problem, guided by nature and God, without obtrusive 
interference from abroad. These great questions o^ prp^vidence and his- 



288 SOUTHERN PROVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 

tory must have free scope for their solution ; and the race whose for- 
tunes are distinctly implicated in the same, is alone authorized, as it is 
alone competent, to determine them. It ifs just this iinptrtlnence of hu- 
man legislation^ sttting hounds to lohat God only can regulate^ that the South 
is called this day to resent and resist. ***** The Most 
High, knowing His own power, which is infinite, and His own wisdom, 
which is unfathomable, can afford to be patient. But these self-con- 
stituted reformers Tiixist quicken the activity of Jehovah, or compel His 
abdication. * * * /jj is time to reprodwe the obsolete idea that Provi- 
dence must govern man, and not that man should control Providence. * * * 
* * These fierce zealots undertake to drive the chariot of the sun ; 
working out the single and false idea which rides them like a nightmare, 
they dash athwart the spheres, utterly disregarding the delicate mechanism 
of Providence; which moves on wheels within wheels, with pivots, and 
balances, and springs, which the great Designer alone can control. 
***** Such an issue is at length presented in the result of the 
recent Presidential election. * * * The decree has gone forth, that 
the institution of Southern slavery shall be constrained within assigned 
limits. Though nature and Providence should send forth its branches 
like the banyan-tree, to take root in congenial soil, here is a power supe- 
rior to both, that says it shall wither and die within its own charmed circle. 
What say you to this, to whom this great providential trust of conserv- 
ing slavery is assigned ? 

SOUTHERN THEOLOGY REBUKED BY SCRIPTURE. 

How is it possible to explain that a sincere believer in 
the doctrine of providence, — and Dr. Palmer is unquestion- 
ably a believer, — can utter sentences of such impassioned 
earnestness against what he just as sincerely believes, in 
the events specified, to be direct infractions of God's provi- 
dential prerogative ? Admit, if you please, every specific 
thing over which he laments, — the act, the design, the 
tendency, the motive, the result, — and still, is it not all a 
part of God's comprehensive plan ? But, more especially, 
can any event occur among men which is more clearly 
providential, and as such more stupendously grand, than 
the election of a Chief Ruler by thirty millions of people 



SOUTHERN THEOLOGY REBUKED BY SCRIPTURE. 289 

to preside over one of the greatest nations of the earth ? 
Does Scripture point out any event as more specifically- 
providential ? " The lot is cast into the lap ; but the whole 
disposing thereof is of the Lord." " God is the Judge ; 
He putteth down one, and setteth up another." " He re- 
moveth kings, and setteth up kings." Or does the Word 
of God declare any thing to be more strictly within the 
purview of His providence than human legislation ? 
*'By me kings reign, and princes decree justice. By me 
princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth." 
Or can the sentiment that God claims directly to govern 
nations, by His providence, and does actually so govern 
them through the lawfully constituted rulers of the world, 
be more definitely and broadly declared than it is ; and 
that upon this ground, therefore, as well as upon other 
grounds, it is a heinous sin to resist their authority? 
" Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers ; for 
there is no power but of God : the powers that be are or- 
dained of God." Or, on the other hand, can any thing 
be found in Scripture which militates against the position 
that God works just as freely and efficiently, in accomplish- 
ing all the designs of His providence, through the folly of 
men as through their wisdom ; through their imbecility 
as through their energy; their wickedness as their holi- 
ness? Is it not, rather, directly declared everywhere in 
His Word, that He works through and by all these charac- 
ters and agencies ; indeed, that He makes every thing bow 
to His will, in heaven, earth, and hell ? " When He giveth 
quietness, who then can make trouble? and when He 
hideth His face, who then can behold him ? whether it be 
done against a nation, or against a man only." " All the 
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing : and He 
doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and 
among the inhabitants of the earth ; and none can stay His 



290 SOUTHEEN PKOYIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 

hand, or say unto him, What doest thou ?" " Onr Lord is 
in the heavens : He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased." 
" I am the Lord, and there is none else ; there is no God 
besides me : I girded thee, though thou hast not known 
me ; that they may know from the rising of the sun, and 
from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the 
Lord, and there is none else. I form the light, and create 
darkness : I make peace, and create evil : I the Lord do 
all these things." 

PROVIDENTIAL RULE SUPREME. 

What unspeakable folly is it, then, — unless His provi- 
dential rule is reduced to that of a mortal, — to talk about 
the "impertinence of human legislation," in great matters 
of state or in small, interfering in any manner with " what 
God would regulate." Such legislation, and all other, 
lies directly in the line of His providence. And what 
consummate folly is it to talk about man, or a political 
party, or the rulers of a people, or the whole nation, or 
all the creatures of God combined, " dashing athwart the 
spheres, utterly disregarding the delicate mechanism of 
Providence ; as though any power in the universe, 
short of Omnipotence, could interpose the obstacle of a 
hair to obstruct the perfect working of that " delicate 
mechanism !" 

When these great providential events had occurred, in 
the mighty movings of the people of a powerful nation, it 
would have exhibited a sounder theology and a more 
reverential piety, and contributed to a brighter fame to 
both, had Dr. Palmer bowed to these events, and detected 
in their occurrence some unsoundness in his own provi- 
dential theory, and the dogma of a " divine trust to 
perpetuate slavery," on which it was founded ; instead of 
making God's plain workings the occasion of Inshing him- 



AN EXPLANATION NEEDED. 291 

self into a tempest of indignation, and misleading his 
flock not only on the Scriptural doctrine of providence, 
but openly urging resistance, instead of teaching obedi- 
ence, " to the higher powers ;" and, as a result, giving 
his great influence to plunge the people into troubles 
which time can never cure. This is said not merely in 
view of events as they now appear. The errors which 
Dr. Palmer proclaims lie upon the very surface of his 
discourse, and are in conflict with the tenor of the whole 
Word of God. 

AN EXPLANATION NEEDED. 

How can such a phenomenon be explained? How 
could a minister of the Gospel, sound in the faith, make 
such an inexcusable perversion of the truth? This is 
just as easily answered as would be a similar question 
upon any other part of his discourse; touching his urging 
an open disruption of the Union, at the declared risk of 
war, and openly braving and defiantly courtmg, if need 
be, all its horrors ; or touching tlie cause for which all 
this should be done and braved, in order to discharge 
"the trust providentially committed" to them, "of con- 
serving and transmitting the system of slavery with the 
freest scope for its natural development and extension ;'* 
or touching the time when these utterances were made, — 
the 29th of November, 1860, — when as yet politicians had 
not matured their plans, and his own city and people for 
a long time afterwards, many of them, w^ere strongly for 
the Union. If any one can resolve these points satisfac- 
torily, we can explain all the difficulties about his utter- 
ances upon providence. 

There is probably some common ground on which 
these theological vagaries, and much else that is appa- 
rently puzzling in his sentiments and course, may be solved. 



292 SOUTHERN PROVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 



A SOLUTION PROPOSED, 

We think there is no difficulty in solving any of the 
points of the case. The theory about slavery, which is at 
the bottom of the whole, — the " corner-stone" of the 
en lire structure, — had stultified in the Southern leaders 
every thing it touched. It rooted out their loyalty to the 
Union as soon as they discovered the Union could be no 
longer serviceable to their demands. It blasted their 
sense of obligation to " be subject to the higher powers,'* 
just as soon as they saw they were no longer to be under 
their own control. It confused their perception of moral 
distinctions, perverted the doctrines of religion, and gave 
false glosses to Scripture, whenever slavery was the topic 
of consideration. The emanations from the system had 
become so ground into their very natures, intellectual and 
moral, and in some cases literally into their bloody that 
they could stake all upon the issue they forced upon the 
country — loyalty, honor, glory, historic memories, righte- 
ousness, truth, life ! 

A PROVIDENCE OF MAN's DEVISING, 

This led them to form to themselves a theory of provi- 
dence, — a path for God to walk in, — which exactly chimed 
in with their plans. They had fondly persuaded them- 
selves that this was GocVs providence instead of their 
oion. They had determined for themselves the special 
" divine trust" which, under this providence, they were to 
execute, and which was committed to them for their 
great mission as a people. They liad brought all their 
abilities and attainments, which indeed no one can well 
despise, to fortify their convictions and religious fervor in 
the full faith of these dogmas, in spite of the sentiments 
of the whole Christian world. And then, when they 



DR. SMTTH ON SOUTHERN PROVIDENCE. 293 

imagined on false grounds that their cherished plans were 
about to be invaded, through a course of events as grandly 
providential as God ever controlled, — they failed to see 
the pointing of the Divine finger, but rose in wrath to 
invoke upon the land all the wild terrors of civil war. 
The world nowhere presents, all things considered, a case "» 
of infatuation which can equal this. 

If our solution is not satisfictory, we can only vary it in 
other words, which, however, are but an embodiment of 
all we have said: God smote them with judicial blind- 
ness ; and, " for this cause,"— the cause which lies at the 
bottom of the trouble in the land,— He sent upon them 
"strong delusion that they should believe a lie," that 
slavery might be destroyed. 

SOUTHERN PROVIDENCE FURTHER ILLUSTRATED. DR. 

SMTTH. 

The peculiar views of providence which we have pre- 
sented are by no means confined to Dr. Palmer. They 
are those commonly entertained by the clergy of the 
South who have been leaders or supporters of the rebel- 
lion. We give an example or two more. 

Dr. Smyth claims God's providence in their favor from 
the beginning of the rebellion, and during every step of 
its progress. Our quotations are from the same soui'ce 
often here referred to, the Southern Presbyterian Review^ 
April, 1863. Dr. Smyth, referring to the great change he 
supposes to have been wrought in the " character and 
conduct of such men as Drs. R. J. Breckinridge, Spring, 
Hodge, Jacobus," and others, says : 

To this blind, fervid fanaticism, the South must oppose the only in- 
vincible shield, and that is faith, faith in God, faith in His word, faith 
in His omnipotent providence, faith in the righteousness of a cause sus- 
tained by His immutable and everlasting truth. * * * God's maiii- 



294 SOUTHERN PKOVIDENCE IN THE EEBELLION. 

fest presence and providence, in the bloodless and yet triumphant vic- 
tory of Sumter; in the electric sympathy with which eleven States 
rushed into each other's arms; in the peaceful, prayerful unity with 
w^hich a Constitution and a Confederation were ratified on earth, and 
sealed in the chancery of Heaven : all this seemed to be the evidence of 
God's presence with us. God seemedthua to command His people in these 
Soutliern States, to whom, as the divider of nations, He had apportioned 
their inheritance, and imposed upon them the solemn trust of an or- 
ganized system of slave labor, for the benefit of the world and as a 
blessing to themselves, while imparting civil, social, and religious bles- 
sings to their slaves ; noio that His word and providence were denied, and 
covenanted rights and immunities were withheld, and the annihilation 
of that system of labor was made the basis and cohesive bond of a 
dominant mobocratic and sectional party, inaugurated as the Govern- 
ment of the United States, and invested with absolute power, God 
now spake as loiih a voice from heaven, saying, "Come out op the 
Union, my people. From such withdraw thyself, for all the men of 
thy Confederacy have brought thee even to the border ; the men that 
were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against 
thee ; they that ate thy bread have laid a wound under thee ; there is 
none understanding in them." The heart of the South was bowed 
before the Most High, the Lord God omnipotent that reigneth, and with 
one voice they cried unto Him and said unto Him, " If thy presence go 
not with us, carry us not up hence ; for wherein shall it be known that 
we, thy people, have found grace in thy sight ? Is it not in that thou 
goest with us ? So shall we be separated from all the people that are 
upon the face of the earth." Then came up from millions of hearts 
the shout, " Go forward I for God is with us of a truth." But 
Abraham Lincoln neither heard nor heeded this voice that spake so audibly 
from heaven, in the otherwise inexplicable events that were occurring around 
him. He hardp,ned his heart, and stiffened his neck, and would not let the 
people go. 

BLASPHEMY AND FANATICISM SUBLIMATED. 

The reader will make his own reflections upon the 
" blind, fervid fanaticism," which mnst have prompted 
such remarkable passages from an able, scholarly, and 
accomplished divine. The transparent blasphemy of this 
writing is in a high state of sublimation ; deeming the 



THE PROVIDENTIAL CLIMAX. DE. STILES. 295 

whole Southern j^eople " the chosen of God" as the Israel- 
ites were, and on that ground applying to them those 
w^ords of Scripture which were applied to His ancient 
people. The likening of the President of the United 
States to the king of Egypt, — and of course regarding 
Jefferson Davis as a second Moses, — are essential to com- 
plete the conception. 

The most satisfactory solution which we can give of the 
mental and moral state of a man of Dr. Smyth's wxll-known 
abilities, under such an exhibition of them, is that previ- 
ously given in reference to Dr. Palmer, and applies to the 
mass of Southern writers upon the rebellion. Their views 
of the " peculiar institution," and of the " trust" concern- 
ing it " providentially committed" to them, present every 
thing relating to the contest in which they have embarked 
for its sake, to their minds and hearts, in an aspect so very 
" peculiar," that they alone, of all mankind, are able to 
perceive things as they see them. There is at least one 
peculiarity between their present condition and that of 
God's ancient people, which is true in fact : " their minds 
are blinded ;" and "* the veil is upon their heart." 

THE PROVIDENTIAL CLIMAX. DR. STILES. 

We give but one more sample of this remarkable reli- 
gious literature of the South. In some respects it exceeds 
all that has gone before it. It is from a discourse of the 
Rev. Joseph C. Stiles, D. D., a Georgian by birth, but who 
was formerly settled for a short time over a Church 
in Cincinnati, and subsequently was Pastor of the Mercer- 
Street Church in New York, and then Pastor of a Church 
in New Haven. He also spent several years of ministerial 
life, previous to these several Northern settlements, in 
Kentucky. He was a slaveholder by inheritance, and re- 
moved to Kentucky for the purpose of preparing his slaves 



29G SOUTHERN PEOVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 

for freedom, and at that time deemed freedom better than 
slavery both for himself and them. We believe he eman- 
cipated them all. 

On the breaking out of the rebellion, he joined the rebel 
leaders, and has since given the power of his unwonted 
eloquence and fervent prayers to the attempt to erect that 
treasonable " nation" whose '' corner-stone" is slavery. 
The discourse to which we refer, came to light in the sum- 
mer of 1863, and is entitled, " National Rectitude the only 
true Basis of National Prosperity ; an Appeal to the Con- 
federate States," founded on the text, "Righteousness 
exalteth a nation." 

THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY TO USHER IN THE MILLEN- 
NIUM. 

Dr. Stiles holds to the doctrine of a " good time coming," 
believes in common with all branches of the Church that 
a millennial day will yet dawn upon the world ; and as in 
his view this is to be providentially accomplished through 
national instrumentality, some one nation taking the lead, 
he is firm in the fliith that this high honor is to fall upon 
that "nation" which glories in human bondage. But let 
him speak for himself: 

Why should it seem a thing incredible to you, that God should raise 
this nation from the dead, and raise her now! A freer nation, the sun 
does not shine upon, and you know it, though she has never been bla- 
tant about free thought, free speech, and free soil. A nation of simpler, 
purer Christianity, thank God, earth does not hold, and you beheve it, 
though she has never been as boastful as some whose religion bears many 
a sad mark of corruption. Why should not God distinguish this nation, 
which has so decidedly distinguished herself in His behalf? Why should 
not God draw nigh to a people who are wont to draw nigh to Him, 
not in the worship of- established ordinances only, but whose Constitu- 
tion itself approaches God with a reverence, you believe, never similarly 
expressed by any other people? Do you not know that the iuterpreta- 



THE SOUTHERN CONFEDEEACT. 297* 

tions and calculations of the soundest Christian learning justify the 
faith that ere long the approach of the Millennium must begin to show 
itself in appropriate premonitory changes, both in the political and 
Christian world ? And is it not reasonable to suppose that God will 
inaugurate this glorious era of the Church, hy wheeling some one nation 
out of the ranks of the world, to take ground for God and man under the 
banner of the Gospel ? 

We have but little doubt that, in the course of God's 
providence, at least one thing here predicted by Dr. Stiles 
will prove true, though not in the sense he intends nor for 
the object he states; and that is, that this rebel "nation" 
will ere long be literally " wheeled out of the ranks of the 
world" and be known as a " nation" no more. That God 
had selected that " nation," however, which boasts of 
standing on an ebony " corner-stone" on which no other 
nation " in the history of the world" ever stood, as His 
grand instrumentality, and Jefferson Davis as his Vicar- 
General, in^ ushering in " the Millennium," is something 
we had not before supposed was recorded in ancient pro- 
phecy. 

Of course, this glowing prospect opened up to rebel 
vision by this modern Daniel, who puts all the " astrol- 
ogers, the magicians, and the soothsayers" of the Church 
to flight, furnishes a basis on this " interpretation of the 
dream," for a most earnest and pious exhortation to the 
people to come up to the help of the Lord against the 
"atrocious;" and thereupon Dr. Stiles implores them as 
follows : 

And now, at a period when the atrocious opposition of a powerful 
nation would seem to invite the interposition of God in our behalf tell me, 
why should not every man who loves God or his country, to the utter- 
most of his ability, preach, pra}--, and work, to arouse our population to 
seize this one great niche of time in the hi^itory of the world, and occupy 
tliat national position? 



298 SOUTHERN PKOVIDElSrCE TN THE REBELLION. 

REBEL VICTORIES BY MIRACLE. 

Certainly ; why should they not " preach, pray, and 
work," as never before ; and especially, when the prospect 
is so good for counting on the direct " interposition of 
God" in their behalf? As the circumstances of their 
extremity " would seem to invite the interposition," can 
God withhold it from those whom Dr. Smyth regards as 
his " chosen people," and from that " nation" here specially 
selected " to take ground for God and man under the 
banner of the (Southern) Gospel," and to usher in the 
" Millennium" of universal negro-slavery, a " nation" that 
has " so decidedly distinguished herself hi this behalf f"* 
God cannot withhold it ; He certainly will interpose by the 
direct might of His omnipotence. See how it is to be 
done, as pictured by Dr. Stiles : 

Oh, how far you live from the light I "Why, let the North march 
out her million of men on the left, and array upon the right all the 
veteran troops of England, France, Russia, and Austria ; and bring up 
the very gates of hell in all their strength to compose the centre of her 
grand invading army. "What then ? Why, every thing in God and from 
God assures us that these Confederate States would hear a voice from 
heaven : " The battle is not yours but mine. Stand ye still and see the 
salvation of the Lord." If they dared to advance one step, a righteous 
and an angry God would fire off upon the aliens terrible thunder that 
angel ears never heard, and shoot out upon them vengeful fires and 
lightnings that cherubic vision never saw, and fling down upon them 
cataracts of angry power that hell herself never felt, and if necessary to 
our deliverance, shake the very earth from under their feet 1 

A NEW SIEGE OF JERICHO. 

It is somewhat difficult, but we finally recover our breath 
again ! — and being able to speak once more, we have a 
suggestion or two to make to those Southern Christians 
and to their preacher, founded upon his own words : " Oh, 
how far you live fi-0!n the light!" 



A NEW SIEGE OF JEEICHO. 299 

Our first suggestion is this : If " every thing in God and 
from God assures''' you of such an easy and complete vic- 
tory over your foes, and by such means, why don't you 
lay aside such expensive and cumbrous things as shot and 
shell and canister, and imitating your prototypes, God's 
ancient chosen people, march out with "rarns' horns" as 
they did at the siege of Jericho? You would be saved 
an amazing amount of " transj^ortation," and the whole 
thing would be done in a single week, and then we should 
have " peace," for which we all sigh. 

You of course, as you read your Bibles, know how it 
was done in the olden time. "Seven priests" were com- 
manded by Joshua to "bear before the ark seven trumpets 
of rams' horns." Let General Lee, your modern Joshua, 
select Dr. Stiles to head the list of " priests," with Drs. 
Palmer, Smyth, Sehon, Fuller, Adger, and Moore ; we 
should certainly name Bishop Polk and Dr. Thornwell, 
had tliey not gone to their final account. The " ark" will 
of course contain a copy of the Constitution of the " Con- 
fedei'ate States of America" which founds your nation on 
the " corner-stone" of human bondage. As the whole 
thing would have failed at Jericho had not the priests 
taken the "ark" into which God had previously com- 
manded " the testimony" to be put, so it is essential that 
your "ark" should contain "the testimony" which you 
have given to the world in your Constitution. The 
ancient " ark" was " overlaid with pure gold within and 
without." As gold may be scarce with you, it may be 
covered and lined with " Confederate Scrip" of the latest 
issue. 

Thus prepared, let the Confederate armies " compass" 
the camp of their enemies, followed by the priests, "bear- 
ing the ark and blowing the trumpets," once a day for six 
days, and on the seventh day go round seven times ; and 
U 



300 SOUTHERX PKOVIDENCE IN THE REBELLIOX. 

having done this, you may be able to hear the voice from 
heaven, which Dr. Stiles said you would, and be nble to 
witness the destruction of all the Yankee armies by those 
"cataracts of angry power" of which he spake. It may 
l)Q — have you ever thought of it ? — that the reason wliy 
you have not already been completely successful over 
them, is, that yon have counted on God's "interposition" 
Avithout using God's means. Beware of such presumption, 
hereafter. We recommend this amendment in your 
"strategy." But one thing, especially, bear in mind. 
Don't "shout" the victory too soon. This was a point 
on which the peojJe were particularly cautioned at the 
taking of Jericho under the ancient Joshua. 

THE COIfFEDEEATE ARMAGEDDON. 

We have another suggestion, which will still further 
illustrate the good policy of your adopting this ancient 
mode of warfare. As "every thing in God and from God 
assures" you that you can whip all mankind and Satan's 
hosts into tl)e bargain, — with the United States composing 
the "left" wing, the great European Powers the "right" 
wins:, and " the gates of hell" the " centre" of the gran<l 
army,— why not call the " priests," get the " rains' horns," 
and make a final end of all your enemies at once? You 
will then have a fair field for your Slavery Propagandism. 
You can then carry out universally, the " Christian Slavery" 
which is so pleasing to the mind and heart of Drs. Arm- 
strong, Thorn well, Palmer, and the rest of " our Southern 
brethren" who mourn and pray over "free society;" 
making masters of whites who are "rich," and slaves of 
whites who are "poor," 

And there is another element of encouragement. There 
would unquestionably be a wholesale desertion to the 
Confederate standard. The moment the rich music of the 



THE CONFEDERATE ARMAGEDDON. 301 

blast from tLe trumpets of the priests carrying the new 
" c^^rner-stODe" faith in the "Confederate ark," should 
reverberate along the line, the entire ^' gquIvq''' loould go 
over to you in a body. They are one with you now, in 
heart, and only want the opportunity, to be arrayed with 
you bodily. You would then have a triumph which would 
cast all the Jerichos of the world into oblivion. Would 
it not be the battle of the Millennial Armageddon ? 

One of your preachers, you know, the Rev. Mr. Baldwin, 
wrote a volume, a few years ago, entitled "Armageddon." 
He imported the plain of Esdraelon from Palestine, and 
located the scene of the battle in the Mississippi Valley. 
According to Scripture, God's "chosen people" are to 
fight this battle, and against them are to be arrayed all 
infidel nations and all the corrupt ecclesiastical hierarchies 
of the world. Now, as you are the "chosen people," as 
you regard your nation the only righteous one among 
men, — " whose Constitution itself approaches God with a 
reverence never similarly expressed by any other people," 
especially the " corner-stone" article, as Mr. Stephens 
claims,~as you regard all other nations "infidel" and all 
other Churches " apostate," because they are wedded to 
"free society," and as you are to bring in the Millennium, 
you undoubtedly believe you are to fight the battle of 
Armageddon. The "terrible thunder," and the "vengeful 
fires and lightnings," and the "cataracts of angry power," 
of which Dr. Stiles speaks, exactly corresponding with the 
iningery of the Seer of Patmos, and the " direct inter- 
position of God" which is claimed, all show that the great 
Millennial battle is meant by the preacher. Only amend 
your " strategy," then, in the manner here respectfully 
suggested, and, — icith the desertion to your ranks of the 
" centre^"* in a body^ — you undoubtedly will triumph. 

Then the whole earth will rejoice that the long- wished- 



302 SOUTHERN PROVIDENCE IN THE REBELLION. 

for Millennial Day has dawned ! — with universal slavery 
for the " poor," mastership for the " rich," all Yankees 
destroyed, the Confederates everywhere triumphant, and 
Jefferson Davis God's Vicar-General over the world ! 

But seriously, — Do we need any better evidence that 
the leaders of the rebellion are demented, than that here 
furnished, in such religious rhapsodies as these leading 
divines indulo^e in ? If these were emanations from ordi- 
nary men, they might be passed by as idle breath ; but 
they come from the greatest intellects and the ripest 
scholarship among Southern Churchmen. That they are 
uttered to " fire the Southern heart" is undoubtedly true ; 
and yet, that these men are sincere we as little doubt. 
That they have had more influence over the more serious 
portion of society, in urging on and kee])ing up the spirit 
of the war, than any other class, is confessed by Southern 
politicians and patent to the world. Our solution of the 
matter is, that they are judicially blinded; given over to 
strong delusion to believe a lie, yea, even a legion of lies ; 
and that, through their delusions, the God of universal 
providence is working out great purposes of good to man- 
kind and glory to His name. 



PEOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS LJf THE REBELLION. 303 



CHAPTER IX. 

PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

We have given in the previous chapter the doctrme of 
Divine Providence, and the remarkable perversions which 
are made of it by writers interested in the cause of per- 
petuating human bondage by a wicked rebellion. We pro- 
pose here to set forth what we regard as some among the 
true purposes of God, now in process of being wrouglit 
out, by the stupendous events which are occurring in this 
nation. 

If we speak with confidence, it is only because our 
convictions are strong and our faith abiding. At the 
same time, we claim no infallibility, in judging of events, 
either present or future. We say here, once for all, that 
we only utter our opinions upon what we regard as God's 
designs. To them we are entitled. We allow others the 
enjoyment of theirs. We aim only to inteypret rather 
th'Mi 2^Tedict^ and give merely our best judgment of some 
things which we think the present contest is likely to 
work out. 

The true doctrine of providence, as entertained by the 
common consent of Christendom, embraces, among others, 
these elements : it includes all beings and all things ; and 
through all, God is working out great purposes of ultimate 
good to the world and glory to Himself. 

If these positions embody the truth, they may be applied 
to the rebellion now in progress, and to the efforts made 
for its suppression. God is controlling all agencies and 
events at vrork in the contest, and out of all He will bring 



304 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE ICEBELLION. 

good to mankind and glory to Himself. No doubt great 
errors may be committed in attempting to interpret God'a 
providence, so as certainly to declare, beforehand, what 
He specifically intends in a given event, or in a series or 
lono- course of events. We think that here Southern wri- 
ters have deceived themselves, and have gone counter to one 
of the sound canons for interpreting God's will, whether 
referring to certain portions of His word or to His provi- 
dence. It is a principle of prophecy, that rarely, if ever, 
is it so plain that it can fully be determined before its ful- 
filment. It is so with providence; we must wait for the 
issue, in most cases, before being able to comprehend fully 
the design. But as in certain prophecies there are w^ay- 
marks which mny guide the sincere inquirer to an approxi- 
mately true interpretation before their fuliilment, and liglits 
which cast a glimmer of truth along the path he would 
travel, and thus he is profited in their study and enabled 
to enter the vestibule of the temple which is ultimately to 
be opened to the full view of all men ; so in providence, 
the honest and devout student, aided by God's word and 
Spirit, may be able to indicate with some approach to 
truthfulness, some, at least, of the grand results which the 
providence of God, as illustrated by daily occurring and 
consecutive events, is designed to reach. 

While we would guard against the folly of committing 
the same error into which Southern writers have fallen, 
there is a marked difterence in the position they assume 
upon the grand designs of providence as applied to the 
present contest, and that which we propose to take, which 
may aid in their solution, even though we should occupy 
precisely the same ground with them, or they with us, in 
reference to the canon of interpretation to which we have 
adverted. The sum and essence of the " trust" wniich 
they regard as " providentially committed" to them, and 



SLAVERY TO BE TERMINATED. 305 

the design of God contemplated in their secession. — to 
"conserve and perpetuate" human bondage, — we regard as 
monstrous and diabolical, and such an application as but 
little if any thinx short of blasphemous. On the other 
hand, as regards this particular element in the case, we 
interpret God's providence as tending to just the contrary 
result, — one of good, — of freedom and elevation to the 
negro race, instead of designed to render their bondage 
more secure, and their freedom and elevation utterly and 
forever hopeless. 

As we difter in our interpretation, and as those who 
disagree with us claim as much ability to ascertain God's 
will as ourselves, we know of no better umpire to decide 
between us than this : fur the present, the common judg- 
ment of Christendom ; and at length, the final issue of the 
contest. There we most willingly leave it, and are willing 
to abide the issue. 

SLAVERY TO BE TERMINATED. 

This preliminary course of thought brings us to notice 
this point first, as among the designs of God in His provi- 
dence. It is quite proper that it should have this place, 
as for the snke of per])etuatlng slivery the rebellion was 
undertaken, and as a means for its suppression the Gov- 
ernment has decreed the destruction of slavery. The 
point now is to inquire, on which side of tlie contest the 
purposes of God are arrayed. This can only be deter- 
mined, at the present liistoric point, from the principles 
which are involved, and from the events vv^hich have oc- 
cui-red and are now in process of being wi'ought out. In 
taking the position th.it God designs the termination of 
slavery in this land, as one result of the rebellion, we 
mean that He designs its termination forever ; and in giv- 
ing what we deem the evidences which support it, we 



306 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

would construe them in proper subordination to the canon 
we have stated. 

It is our opinion that the termination or the perpetua- 
tion of slavery, is by no means necessarily connected 
with the result of the war. In any event we believe the 
doom of slavery sealed. 

If the Union shall be preserved in the complete triumph 
of the national arms, slavery will be ended. It needs no 
seer to declare the foregone conclusion of the Amei-ican 
people upon this point. They w^ll admit no compromise ; 
it is beyond the reach of party jngglery ; the great party 
oi tlic j)eo2:)le will say, and adhere to the saying, that on 
the reinstatement of the national authority over the terri- 
tory of the entire Union, that element of our national life 
which has wrought such havoc, shall die the death. They 
will never permit the possibility of a repetition of so foul 
a treason in its name. Once in a thousand years, — or, 
once for all time, — is quite sufficient for such an issue 
within the bounds of the same nation. The memorials of 
the rebellion which the current age will embalm, and the 
materials out of whicli the future historian will elaborate 
the truth, will present a record in such hues of the deeds 
done for the sake of slavery, that the memory of them 
will be wrought too deeply into the soul of each succes- 
sive generation to admit of its being possible that negro 
slavery can ever be reinstated within the domain of the 
Union. At least, this is our opmion, 

MANNER OP ITS TERMINATION. 

The precise manner in which the institution will be 
universally terminated, and its termii^iUtiou maintained, in 
the event of the preservation of our nationality, it is not 
material here to dwell upon, though we do not doubt the 
ultimate point which will be reached. It will be by an 



MANXSK OJ^' ITS TEEMIJS'ATION. 307 

amendment of the Constitution of the United States. 
Ahhou2:h that measure has been for the present defeated 
in the House of Representatives, and may not be passed 
till a new Congress shall be elected, or possibly may be 
even longer deferred, it cannot admit of doubt that when 
the people shall have determined on prohibiting the institu- 
tion forever, the form and substance of the prohibition 
will be embodied in the supreme organic law, the most 
sacred depository of the popular will. 

In the mean time, and while waiting for this consumma- 
tion, it may be accomplished in all the Rebel States by an 
Act of Congress; or it may occur simply under the 
Proclamation of the President already issued; or it may 
end through the measures which the civil power may take 
for receiving the revolted States to their proper standing 
in the Union. Whatever may be the course of the civil 
authorities, however, looking to that end, no measure 
which they may adopt, during the continuance of the war, 
will be effectual, except as backed up by military foi-ce ; 
and it may be that while the war continues, uo effective 
measures will be adopted, but such as are embraced 
within and may be carried out by the war power of the 
Executive; and even after the war shall have ended, in 
the complete success of the Union arms, and the civil 
authority shall have erected its barriers, we do not antici- 
pate a ready acquiescence on the part of the entire Southern 
people to a parting with slavery. Whatever status may 
l)e given to the institution by the law, — even a prohibition 
of it forever, and that by the Constitution, and a requisition 
that similar prohibitions shall be inserted in each State 
Constitution in the rebel dominions, — this may not of 
itself, for many years, be sufficient. A military force may 
be requisite, in many parts of the South, to maintain the 
Constitution and the laws. But if so, it will be furnished; 
14* 



308 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

even if it require a perpetual standing army. If Southern 
slaveholders so elect, such will be their condition ; they 
will be kept in order by the troops of the United States, 
formed out of the materials they have held in bondage, 
just as the Government is now employing such troops to 
reduce them to subjection to the Constitution and the 
laws. It is among the clearest of all propositions, as 
reasonable, that the people who sustain the Government 
in prosecuting the war, who have endured and are enduring 
its untold sacrifices, will shrink back from no burden and 
no measure, when the war shall have ended in triumph, 
which may be essential to make good their determination 
to destroy the cause of the rebellion, that it may trouble 
their children or their children's children no more forever. 

ACTION IN CERTAIN BORDER STATES. 

We have spoken thus far of the termination of slavery 
in the Rebel States only, and on the supposition of the 
complete suppression of the rebellion and restoration of 
the national authority. The remaining slave States, with, 
we believe, but one or possibly tvv-o excej)tions, have recently 
taken measures within themselves to terminate slavery by 
State Constitutional authority. Maryland is now engaged 
in altering her Constitution so as to abolish it within that 
State, and the sentiments of her people are well known to 
favor the measure by a large majority.* West Virginia, 
a new State formed from Virginia, has already abolished 

* The Baltimore American of June 27th, brings an important annonncement 
from the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of Maryland. It gives the 
twenty-third article of the Bill of Rights, as follows: " Hereafter, in this State, 
there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of 
crime, whereof the party shall be duly convicted; and all permns held to service 
or labor as slaves, are herehy declared feee." Upon this, the American says: 
"This article, after a protracted debate in the Constitutional Convention, in the 
course of which it was stistained in a masterly manner by the advocates of Anti- 
Slavery, was passed by a vote of fifty-three yeas to twenty-seven nays." This lacks 



ACTION IN CERTAIN BORDER STATES. 309 

slavery. Missouri has not yet accomplished that result, 
but it is well known that the mass of her people are in 
favor of it, the main or only diiierence among them being 
whether it shall be immediate or gradual. There are so 
few slaves in Delaware, and the territory they occupy is 
so small, that practically the matter is of little consequence 
in its bearings upon the national question. We do not 
know whether any measures have been taken since the 
war began, to remove slavery from that State ; but in any 
event it is fiir to conclude, that when slavery shall have 
been removed from the other Border States, and shall 
have been overthrown in the rebel States, it will not 
long continue to infest the soil of Little Delaware. Ten- 
nessee was not embraced in the President's Proclamation 
declaring the freedom of the slaves in States that had 
rebelled ; but it is well understood from the sentiments 
of her leading loyal men of all former political parties, 
that the masses of the people desire the institution to 
cease among them, and public Conventions of the people 
have po declared ; but in consequence of the presence of 
war within her borders, and the disorganization of the 

but one vote of beins tioo to one. The people will of course ratify it by a large 
niajoi-ity, for the Convention, so recently elected, but reflects in this act the 
poi)ular will. It was upon this question that the election turned. It makes Mary- 
land a free State, by immediate emancipaiion^ and that vnthotit compensation. 
" My Maryland," thus stands erect. She has the honor of being the first of the loyal 
States which has voluntarily made "all men free"* within her borders. The Ameri- 
can farther says : "The regeneration of a Commonwealth like ours is not an every- 
day occurrence. It is hard to estimate this work at its full value. But we shall see 
and know it better hereafter. All we know now is that the vestiges of a great evil 
are cleared away ; that the canker of a great iniquity is extirpated, root 
and branch; that to our posterity no compromise is bequeathed which may 
be a fruitful source of discord hereafter. Races are forgotten, and humanity is 
honored. We have joined the train of rejuvenated States in the march of Freedom. 
We have torn away the mask from the deformity of Slavery, and we have wrenched 
the rod from the oppressor. We look to the future with hearts full of hope and 
trust, confident that Providence in its own good time will work out for us a brighter 
destiny. We offer our hand to our sister States and ask their congratulations. We 
ask them to join us in the prayer, God prcHcrve the Comjnonioealth of Maryland. 



310 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

civil authorities by the rebellion, no determinate action 
has yet been taken. The District of Columbia has been 
instantly changed from slave to free territory by an Act 
of Congress, since the outbreak of rebellion ; and by the 
same authority freedom has been secured to all the Terri- 
tories of the United States. 

Kentucky is the only remaining slave State. She has 
taken no action upon slavery since the rebellion began. 
This may be owing to the foot that such are the provisions 
of her Constitution, that no measures of a legislative 
character, looking to its removal, even by a gradual pro- 
cess, could reach their decisive point, short of some six or 
seven years from their inauguration by the Legislature. 
Many citizens of Kentucky believe, and so express them- 
selves freely, that long before that period can arri\ e, 
slavery will be terminated in that State and throughout 
the whole country, by the course of events inevitably 
resulting from the action of the Government in putting 
down the rebellion. 

SIGNS OF ITS TERMINATION. THE LOYAL STATES. 

We present, then, as tlie first palpable indication which 
we notice, in the course of providence, that God's design, 
in this rebellion, is the removal of slavery from the country 
entirely, the events to which we have refei'red. 

The simultaneous action of the States of so large a ter- 
ritory as is embraced in the broad belt of the Border 
States, for the freedom of thousands of slaves, taken in 
connection with the pervading sentiment in favor of the 
removal of slavery in the other loyal slave States, and the 
actual removal of slavery from the District of Columbia, 
and its prohibition in all the Territories of the Union, are 
events of such importance, that, were they not overshad- 
owed by the excitements immediately attending the war, 



FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW REPEALED. 311 

they would occnpy a prominent place in the public thought 

of the world. 

These unexpected and extraordinary events are the 
direct result of the rebellion ; among the ''first-fruits" 
which it has immediately brought forth. It is diliicult to 
believe they could have occurred so extensively, and oc- 
curred within so short a period, and at the same time, bad 
not the rebellion taken place. No such change in pubhc 
sentiment could have been brought about, within such a 
period, nor such action inaugurated, by any method of 
mere discussion, even confined within the respective States. 
And had Congress undertaken, at any time within twenty 
years, to free the slaves in the District of Columbin, or to 
engraft upon every Territorial bill a prohibition of slavery, 
as it has done within the last three years, it would have 
convulsed the nation ; it would have inaugurated rebellion, 
which was in fact undertaken in the apprehended fear that 
such measures might possibly occur. 

We cannot understand how a believer in providence can 
interpret events so unlikely to occur under ordiiiary cir- 
cumstances, so palpably occasioned by the rebellion, in 
any other manner than that God designs to remove slavery 
from the vast regions mentioned, and that the rebellion, — 
in which He makes the wrath of man to praise Him,— is the 
ao-ency through which He aims to accomplish it. 

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW BEPEALED. 

There is another important fact in the line of providence 
and bearing directly upon the termination of slavery, a fact 
which has a special influence upon the continuance of 
slavery in the Border States, and which more or less affects 
it in the whole slave portion of the Union. The present 
Congress has repealed the Fugitive Slave Law, both the 
Act of IVOS and th,\t >f 1S">0; so that; now there is no law 



312 PEOYIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

of the United States for the reclamation of slaves escaping 
from their masters. The Canada line, in its previous 
bearings upon slavery, is now the Ohio and the Potomac. 
Even if the Border States had taken no action for abolish- 
ing slavery, the eftect of this repeal would soon be very 
visible upon the institution within them, as well as upon 
the whole slave region. 

Here is another important measure, the fruit of the re' 
hellion. Congress could not, at any period since 1850, 
and before the rebellion, have repealed the Fugitive Slave 
Act of that year, without producing a revolution. The 
members from the South would very likely have carried out 
their oft-repeated threat, and withdrawn in a body from 
both Houses. Those threats were once thouglit to be only 
idle breath. Southern bluster ; but no special credulity is 
now required to believe that they would have been put in 
execution. 

SLAVES FREED BY THE WAR. 

Another event disastrous to slavery, and which has 
been occasioned by the rebellion, is the influence which 
has resulted from a state of war and the presence of the 
army. We speak now particularly of the Border States. 
With the Federal armies traversing those States, and with 
the usages of war in former times,* and the orders of the 
War Department and the decision of the Executive, and 
the Acts of Congress, in revising the Articles of War, the 
point was early reached that all slaves coming within the 
lines of the army should be deemed free, and not returned 
to their masters. 

Besides this, the action of the Government, under Ex- 



* We shall show, on a future page in this chapter, that the United States authorities, 
military and civil, have, in Ibriner wars, recognized the freedom of slaves coining 
•witliin the liiu-s of the United States army. 



ALL TRACEABLE TO THE KEBELLION. 313 

ecutive authority, in enrolling negroes, free and slave, as 
soldiers, and securing to the latter their freedom ; and 
finally, the Act of Congress providing for their enrolment 
in all the States, guaranteeing to the slaves their freedom, 
and to loyal masters compensation ; these are among the 
measures which have had a great influence in rendering 
the institution comparatively worthless, even in the loyal 
Border States. In Maryland and Kentucky, where great 
opposition has been made to the Enrolment Act, in hun- 
dreds of cases the slaves have not waited either for the enrol- 
ment or draft, but have gone to the camps and enlisted, 
and under the orders and decisions of the Government 
have become thenceforth free ; so that, in every way, from 
the presence of the army, and from a state of war, the 
institution of slavery in the loyal States, where there was 
no disposition on the part of the Government to interfere 
with it in itself considered, has become thoroughly de- 
moralized, almost wholly worthless, and is rapidly melting 
away, leading to the feeling entertained by a large number 
of those most interested in the institution, that the sooner 
it is finally terminated the better it will be for all persons 
and interests concerned. 

ALL TRACEABLE TO THE REBELLION. 

Such are the facts passing before our eyes. Whatever 
may be thought of this course of events, — whether they 
aflbrd matter fv)r rejoicing or lamentation, — one thing is 
most cleiir : they are the fruits of the rebellion. If any 
lament, they must hold the rebellion responsible; while 
those who survey them justly, must behold in them "a 
Divinity that shapes our ends," operating- through the 
"rough-hswn" aims and dee<ls of a foul conspiracy. 

We say again, that we cannot understand how it is that 
any person who holds to the doctrine of providence, that 



314 PEOYIDENTIAL DESIG:!SrS IN THE REBELLION. 

God works out His purposes through the agency of man, — 
the wicked and the good alike, — can note carefully and 
candidly passing events, and not come to the conclusion 
that God designs, as one result of the rebellion and the 
war, the removal of slavery from the land. Besides the 
facis mentioned, it is the desire^ as founded injustice and 
good policy, seen in the opinions of leading men in these 
States, which we shall give hereafter, that slavery should 
be removed; and it is likewise their helief^ tliat "the ful- 
ness of time" for this grand consummation has at length 
come. 

TEKMIXATION OF SLAVERY IN THE REBEL STATES. 

Many of the same causes which we have mentioned, 
operating to the removal of slavery from the Border States, 
have the same effect upon the States farther South. The 
repeal of tlie Fugitive Slave Acts, the removal of slavery 
from the District of Columbia, its prohibition in all the 
Teriitories, affect all the States alike, though not to the 
same extent. So, also, the action of the Border States, 
and the sentiments of many of their leading men, in favor 
of abolisliing slavery therein, are not without their moral 
effect in the same direction upon the other States. 

Another sign of great significance is the development 
already of antislavery sentiment and action in the remotest 
Gulf States and others, as they have been restored by the 
Union arms. Louisiana is revising her State Constitu- 
tion, purging it of slavery, and has already inaugurated a 
State Government upon an antislavery basis. Arkansas 
has done the same. Tennessee has taken steps in the same 
direction, and will soon stand erect, organized, and purged 
of slavery. All these States will soon be fully represented 
in Congress ; possibly in the next session of the present 
Congress. 



TERMINATIOX OF SLAVERY. 315 

Other States will follow in tlie same direction Avhen re- 
conquered to the Union, and when there can be an oppor- 
tunity for the true sentiment of the people to be htard. 
Undoubtedly the mass of them have preferred slavery, and 
perhaps would prefer it still as a system of labor, in itself 
considered, for they have known no other; but as the 
arms of the Union advance, and they see that there is no 
hope of realizing their dreams of a Slave Empire, and as 
they reflect on the prosperity they once enjoyed and the 
woes with which they are surrounded, — all brought upon 
them by " secession" ibr the security of slavery which they 
were assured would be "peaceful" — they will, as they 
love peace better than war, and as they prefer prosperity, 
stability, certainty, and quiet, to an endless strife over 
slavery, subnnt to the necessities of the case and abandon 
their idol to its late. We look for a ra)>id development 
of this feeling, and for corresponding results, in North 
Carolina, Georgia, and some other States, whenever tliey 
shall have been completely possessed by the armies of the 
Union, and the danger of a repossession by the rebel forces 
is past. 

In Ln-ge districts of the South slavery will die hard. 
Powder and shot, and shell, war, blood, and carnage, 
have been invoked for its security and expansion ; these 
are the Aveapons which will work its death, while the 
victims of its bondage will prove the sentinels which will 
watch over its grave. 

We may see what the march of armies is doing for 
slavery in the daily events of the war. Into every slave 
State where the Union forces move, the institution gives 
way. Many are driven off and huddled together in 
regions farther South; thousands are enlisted into the 
ranks ; and what remains of the institution becomes use- 
less to masters, of no avail to the country, and its victims 



316 PK0VIDE2s^TIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

look to the hand of the Government for their daily bread. 
Such will be the condition of things, substantially, all 
over the South as the country is reclaimed. 

When the conquest is complete, and the war ended, 
slavery will be terminated in every Rebel State by the 
course of measures already mentioned. The security for 
this will be the military power of the Union, just as long 
as it may be necessary. When the peo])le get tired of 
this, and think it best to submit to the authority of the 
Government, give up their love of slavery, and employ 
their former slaves as free laborers, and treat them 
properly, they can be released from their own bondage ; 
but until they do this, the military rule will undoubtedly 
continue. 

SLAVERY DOOMED THOUGH DISUNION TRIUMPH. 

We have already said, in this chapter, that the termina- 
tion or the perpetuation of slavery is by no means neces- 
sarily connected with the result of the war ; that, in any 
event, we believed its doom was sealed. We will now 
explain what is meant by this. 

We have presented considerations thus far to show that 
providential designs, read in the light of passing events, 
point to the termination of slavery; but we have con- 
sidered these events only as connected with the complete 
overthrow of the rebellion and the re establishment of the 
national authority. That the nation wall eventually 
triumpli, we have never doubted; and that with its 
triumph by its military power will come the eternal doom 
of slavery, we have as little doubt. We i-egard it as 
deci-eed of Go<l. But whether our nationality shall perish 
or survive, we view the doom of slavery as written in the 
clearest light ; and for this we will present what we deem 
satisfactory reasons. 



INTERNAL CAUSES OF ITS DESTRUCTION. 3l7 

INTERNAL CAUSES OF ITS DESTRUCTION. 

The main one, and which is the germ of all, is, that the 
rebellion has completely demoralized the institution 
throughout the whole slave region. So thoroughly has 
this been done, and will it be done by the further prose- 
cution of the war, that it will be impossible to restore it 
to its former condition, so as to be safe and profitable as 
before, l)y all the power which the " Confe'^lerate States," 
if established and recognized, can muster for that object. 

That an exertion of power for that end, not requisite 
hitherto, would be demanded in the case supposed, is too 
plain for doubt. The slaves can never again be made 
contented with their condition in bondage. It is idle to 
tell us that they have been entirely contented with that 
condition hitherto. Having lived more than fifteen years 
of our professional life in two of the Gulf States, and 
travelled extensively over several otiiers in the extreme 
South ; having seen the system in city and country, at 
work and in recreation, upon the plantation and in the 
household, in the cabin and in the church, at home and 
abroad — we know something of its character and work- 
ings, and have very little that is new about it to learn. 
The stringent police system universal in the South, and a 
thousand facts and aspects of the case with which we 
will not weary tlie reader, but which are well understood 
by all who have lived where slavery prevails, especially 
in the Rebel States, establish the certainty that far more 
discontent has always existed— creating an anxiety often 
ill-concealed— than slave-owners were generally willing to 

admit. 

But, passing the foimer discontent and its immediate 
occasion by, the case is now materially changed. The 
influence of the rebellion has invaded every plantation of 



318 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

tlie rebel dominions. All the slaves believe that the war 
is waged for the continuance of thtir bondage on the one 
hand, and for their freedom on the other. That they 
des^ire tlie latter condition is unquestionable. However 
little they may have desired it hitherto, that desire is now 
universal. Witness the multitudes that have flocked to 
the Union armies as far as they have penetrated slave 
territory, men, women, and children. They no doubt 
have very crude and erroneous notions of freedom; iii 
thousands of instances they will find their lot a hard one, 
on gaining their liberty, owing to the distracted state of 
the country; in thousands of cases more, OAving to the 
same cause, have they died of disease and neglect, and 
many will die hereafter; and, undoubtedly, arising from 
these hardships, will many sigh for their former homes, 
and some perhaps, if possible, may return to them ; but, 
after all, it is still true, that the desire for this new con- 
dition is universal, and that it prompts them to action to 
gain it, and try the expeiiment as soon as an opportunity 
is given by the presence of a coat of blue. 

ILLUSTRATIVE INCIDENT. COLONEL DAHLGREN. 

A fact sustaining this view, confirmed by a thousand 
instances, is well known. It is the uni\ersal testimony 
from our armies, that the slaves give true information of 
tiie country and of the enemy, and often at the greatest 
risk of life, while it is a rare thing for the whites to do 
this. In all our re iding about the rebellion, w^e can call 
to mind b'lt one instance to the contrary ; that in which 
the slave of Mr. Seddon, the rebel Secreta.ry of War, mis- 
led a portion of the forces of the lamented Colonel Dahl- 
gren, on his approach to Richmond. Some have doubted 
the deception practised in this case ; but, if true, it is the 
exception which confirms the rule. 



FACTS, AND THEIE LESSON. 3i9 

FACTS, AND THEIR LESSON. 

Two facts are sometimes mentioned, one of a negative 
and the other of a positive character, to confront the view 
we have given. We admit them both, but deny the con- 
chision drawn from them. It is said, if the slaves are so 
desirous of freedom, why have they not shown it by 
rising upon their masters universally? Many supposed 
tliis would be the case on the issuing of the President's 
Proclamation of Freedom, 1st of January, 1863. We 
were not of the number. Our acquaintance with the 
South led to a diflerent opinion, and the result has verified 
its correctness. 

That the Proclamation is known and understood by 
them as extensively as any other specific and important 
measure of the Government we do not doubt. But three 
causes, to name no more, are sufficient to prevent, at the 
present time, a wide insurrection for gaining their free- 
dom. The first is, their powerlessness, while the whole 
Southern country is armed, and they are guarded by a 
more strict police than ever. With all their ignorance, 
they know such attempt to be hopeless, and that it would 
end in their indiscriminate slaughter."^ The second is, 
that tliey would have first to conquer and destroy the 
women and children npon the plantations, in addition to 
the police, to prevent their giving information, and to dis- 
possess them of the arms which many of them have. 
This would operate as a restraint upon many, even though 
they saw freedom before them ; for, whatever else may 
be said, a very strong attachment exists, very extensively, 
between them and the personnel of the household. But 

* The testimony that a universal slaujchter would result from insurrection, la 
given in the "Address to the Christian World," by ninety- six Southern clergymen 
of all denominations, quoted on page 183, in Chapter v. 



320 peovideintial designs in the rebellion. 

the third cause is sufficiently powerful to overcome the 
temptation which might impel them to violence. They 
believe the day of their deliverance is near, and that they 
have only to wait in order to realize it. They believe 
that their freedom will be secured by the Union armies, 
in the suppression of the rebellion, and that they must 
wait for their coming. That their Day of Jubilee is at 
hand, is with them a conviction as strong as death. 

The other fact relied on to show that they are con- 
tented with their lot, and not desirous of freedom, is the 
alacrity they display in serving their masters in the camp, 
and in other positions connected with the rebel service. 
This is easily explained. They are entirely under military 
control, and infinitely more in the army than on the 
plantations, altliough few of them have been placed in 
the rebel ranks. Their lot is to obey, or forfeit life. 



TVAR EDUCATING SLAVES FOR FREEDOM. 

Another important consideration, bearing on the de- 
struction of slavery, even though the Confederacy should 
at length be established, is the education which the rebel- 
lion, more or less extensively, is dilFusing among the 
slaves. It is making them acquainted with war ; giving 
many of them habits of military discipline, and an acquaint- 
ance with many important details of the military art. We 
have already stated, what is well supported by the facts, 
that the reason why so few comparatively of the slaves 
are put into the rebel armies, is owing to the fear of the 
consequences which would result from making them 
soldiers. But enough has been done to make the experi- 
ment dangerous, should peace result and leave them in 
bondage. This lea\ en would be diftused, and the knowl- 
edge improved and extended. 



EXTERNAL CAUSES OF ITS DESTRUCTION. 321 

We have no marxner of doubt, that, if the rebellion 
should triumph, and its leaders should determine to realize 
tlieir idea of building a great Empire on the " corner- 
sione" of slavery, — securing its perpetuity, extension, and 
stabiUty against all dangers, — the slaves, seeing that their 
longings and hopes were about being destroyed, would 
become even more demoralized than now, so far as em- 
|>loyment is concerned, and would then rise and assert their 
freedom to the extent of their power, even though they 
should deem the is>ue doubtful and destruction probable. 
We might then look for a repetition of the scenes of St. 
Dominizo, a servile w^ar with terrible atrocities, and for 
the negroes, possibly, at the end — freedom; but certainly 
not a continuance of negro slavery, in a great Empire of 
the Gulf, of which that element should be the " corner- 
stone." 

EXTERNAL CAUSES OF ITS DESTRUCTION. 

We have only considered the causes which would ope- 
rate within the Confederacy for the destruction of slavery, 
in case its independence were acknowledged. There are 
powerful causes which would operate outside of it for the 
same end. 

In no treaty which could possibly be made with the United 
States would any immunity be granted to slavery. No 
Fugitive Slave Law will ever again ornament the Statutes 
at L;irge of the Union; nor would any other concession 
10 the system be made. The party that should attempt it 
v.ould be hurled from power and doomed to infamy. The 
Administration that should propose or agree to it would 
provoke a revolution. The people have had that chalice 
pressed to their lips for the last time. They have drunk 
it in blood, the blood of their sons and brothers. They 
will drink of it no more forever. 



322 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IX THE EEliELLIOX. 

Without such guarantees, how long could slnveiy exist 
in a Southern Confederacy ? The line between freedom 
and shivery would steadily march South, first placing the 
Border States behind it, then the next tier, and so on steaclily, 
by the escape of slaves ; until the States, from the paucity 
of labor, and in sheer self-defence, would adopt the free- 
labor system in order to maintain the cultivation of the soil. 

Besides this, every possible effort would be made by 
those in the old Union who are violently opposed to 
slaA^ery, to interfere with it; by publications, by under- 
ground railroads, by John Brown raids, and by any and 
every other means within their power. Nor would they 
be at all restrained, but rather stimulated to this, by what 
they have already sacrificed in a war for which slavery is 
responsible ; and should an insurrection occur in the South, 
it \/ould be aided freely. Nor could any legislation pre- 
vent such course of action, should it be attempted. We 
say nothing of the j^ropriety of any of these measures, but 
only speak of what would inevitably occur, taking human 
nature as it is. How long, under this state of things, could 
slavery endure ? 

ENVIRONED BY ENEMIES. 

But this is not all. Such a nation would bring down 
upon it the wrath of the world. It has been about as much 
as the United States could bear with a good grace, to with- 
stand the odium of universal Christendom, with a portion 
of its territory burdened with slavery merely under tole- 
ration ; but when a nation should have consummated the 
consecration of that system as its " corner-stone," through 
a ceremonial of treason, blood, and carnage, and should 
attempt to carry out its new Gospel to the results designed 
by its founders, it would become insufferable among men ; 
and should it open the African slave-trade to replenish its 



COTTON DEEAMS VANISHED. 323 

fields with laborers, as was a part of the original plan of its 
leaders, it would be dealt with as a pirate among the na- 
tions, just as individuals are now treated who engage in 
that execrable traffic. 

It is not easy to perceive how the " Confederate States 
of America," thus beset by millions of enemies within, 
each feeling that he is personally wronged in the depriva- 
tion of his manhood, and beset by enemies of such power 
and number in the nations of the world without, each feel- 
ing that it had a duty to discharge toward the oppressed 
and in behalf of humanity, could long rest securely on its 
favorite " corner-stone." The stone would crumble under 
such blows, and the whole edifice would fall and perish. 

COTTON DREAMS VANISHED. 

It is quite too late in the day to affirm that such a nation 
would be countenanced by other nations from necessity ; 
and to admit, with Dr. Palmer, that to " conserve and 
perpetuate slavery" was a duty they owed "^o the civilized 
v^orld^'' even though it be true that " the blooms upon 
Southern fields, gathered by black hands, have fed the 
sjiindlesand looms of Manchester and Birmingham not less 
than of Lawrence and Lowell." All such dreams are of 
the past, so far as they relate to slavery ; fov nothing is 
more certain than that those " blooms" can equally well 
be " gathered by black hands" that are/ree. Nor is it at 
all needful that those "hands" should be "black;" much less 
that "the blooms" they gather should be from "Southern 
fields" alone. The necessities growing out of this rebel- 
lion have demonstrated that the throne of Kin 2: Cotton is 
not immovably built on Southern plantations, and that 
his daily attendants may be found among other people 
than the dark-hued sons of Africa. The mills of Manches- 
ter and Birmingham have already learned this practical 
15 



324 PKOVIDENTIAX, DESIGNS IN THE EEBELLION. 

lesson, and those of Lowell and Lawrence are quite as 
apt scholars. 

The dream of Dr. Palmer, however, is none other than 
that which filled the watches of the night and the 
hours of the day of all the Southern leaders. " Strike 
a blow," says he, " at this system of labor, and the world 
2^6Y^{/' totters at the stroke." And with a patriotism, which 
is quite cosmopolitan, he exclaims : " Shall we permit that 
blow to fall ? Do we not owe it to civilized 'man to stand 
in the breach and stay the uplifted arm ? If the blind 
Samson lays hold of the pillars which support the arch of the 
workVs industry^ how many more will be buried beneath 
its ruins than the lords of the Philistines ?" And with a 
complacency which is quite edifying, he applies the words 
addressed to Queen Esther, to the people of the South,* 
with only this difference, that while she was merely desired 
to prefer a simple " request" to save the Jews fi-om appre- 
hended evil, they are exhorted to treason and rebellion to 
save '• the world itself" from absolute " ruin :" " Who 
knoweth whether we are not come to the kingdom for 
such a time as this ?" 

But v/e presume that if the world were really driven 
to the extremity, as it existed several thousand years 
before the discovery of the cotton-gin, it probably could 
continue awhile longer if the cotton-plant should be com- 
pletely exterminated ; though we have no fear that such 
a catastrophe will occur, or any opinion that the world 
would be much the loser, if the " Confederate States" and 
all they contain should be blotted from its map forever. 

SliAVERT DOOMED AND THE UNION MAINTAINED. 

But the doom of slavery is not dependent, as we believe 
and have said, on either result of the war. No result of 
the bloody issue joined in its favor can save it. In a 



SLA.VERT DOOMED AND THE UNION MAINTAINED. 325 

separate iialion it perishes under its own weight. With 
our nationality maintained, it dies by the same blow wliich 
brings the rebellion to the block. 

As we have said, however, we do not doubt the alterna- 
tive to which God's providence points, aud which His 
decree has made sure. It is, in our judgment, "fore- 
ordained," — and we say it Avith no other light than that 
which is vouchsafed to others, but we think every availa- 
ble consideration warrants the position, — that this nation 
is to stand, that its enemies are to be overthrown, that 
the rebellion is to be crushed, and the " Confederate 
States of America" blotted out; and just as surely as that 
is done, the same decree of God, executed by the Ameri- 
can people, will terminate negro slavery in this land. 
This, at least, is our opinion. 

If .-my persons hesitate to accept these conclusions, we 
can only ask them to defer their opinion until the case is 
decided. This is safe. They might tell us to do the same. 
We are quite willing to wait ; but Ave will, as briefly as 
may be,- give " a reason for the hope tiiat is in us," and 
we trust not without "meekness and fear." 

Under God, it is a question of means, and a question of 
endurance. There is a sense in which the remark of the 
great Napoleon is true, that " the providence of God is 
with the strongest battalions," and there is a sense in 
wdiich it is false. We accept the true sense, and apply it 
to the present case. Another remark we accept, that 
"the age of miracles is past," and we apply it now to war. 
And yet, we hold rigidly to the true doctrine of provi- 
dence, that God works in, through, by, and controls, all 
that takes place, educing evil out of good, and exalting 
His great name. While the Omnipotent and the Omni- 
scient thus works out His purposes through means, there 
i.s generally an adaptedness of the means to the end, an 



326 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE EEBELLION. 

adaptedness which a close observer can often perceive, 
and the course of which he can often trace with clearness 
and declare the result. 

Now, apply these general principles to the case in hand, 
and we say that the issue of this war between lawful Gov 
ernment and a foul rebellion is merely or mainly a question 
as to which of the parties can hold out the longest. We 
take it for granted, at the outset, that neither intends to 
compromise the question which underlies the whole con- 
test, the question of nationality. The Government will 
not surrender its authority of rule over the whole Union, 
but upon one condition, — that it is compelled to this by 
the total defeat of its armies. ISTo party or administration 
would dare do this. The people will not allow it. It is the 
people's Government, and the people are carrying on the 
war to sustain it. On the other hand, we have no idea 
that th.e leaders of the rebellion will ever give up the con- 
test, except upon one of two conditions, — that their inde- 
pendence as a nation is recognized ; or, that the rebellion 
itself is crushed, which means the destruction of its mili- 
tary power. Such being the case, the war must go on 
until one party or the other is completely overthrown. It 
is then a question of endurance, a question of means and 
of power. This, upon the ground we have assumed, is the 
sole issue. 

KEASONS FOR THIS POSITION. 

What, then, is the relative strength of the parties? In 
answering this, we cannot go into a full exainination, but 
will present some general considerations which are funda- 
mental, and which substantially embrace the whole case. 

With the rebels, the issue, leaving out other resources, 
is chiefly one of men^ and that in comparison with men on 
the other side. That the rebels can "get along," and 



STEENGTH OF THE PAPwTIES IN SOLDIERS. 327 

fiixlit lono; and via'orouslv without moneiu — or rather, with 
that only which is worthless, except to themselves, and 
which may become well nigh or totally so, even to them, 
— is unquestionable. Nations have frequently done this. 
England has prosecuted her gigantic wars, during a long 
period, with her currency at a very low ebb ; and France 
has fought just as vigorously with her assignats down at 
zero at the stock-boards of other nations, and worthless, 
for the time, upon the Bourse of Paris. The Confederate 
" nation" may also fight on, with a worthless currency, or 
with none at all ; and for a circulating medium, or with- 
out one, the people can come back to barter. As for their 
bogus Government, it can get its necessities for the army, 
by " taxation in kind," and by arbitrary " impressment," 
phrases which have a place in rebel "law," and which 
with the people have a meaning. Those necessities which 
they must have from abroad, they gain by their cotton 
which runs the blockade ; and as they have obtained sup- 
pUes hitherto, we admit, for the sake of the argument, 
that they may gain in that way what they may need here- 
after. We therefore leave all this out of the account, and 
come back to the simple element of men out of whom 
to make soldiers ; and how stands the accomit on this 
score ? 

STRENGTH OF THE PARTIES IN SOLDIERS. 

The census of 1860 answers the question. The eleven 
Confederate States, including Tennessee and Arkansas, 
and excluding Missouri, contained, by that census, one 
million and a quarter of white males between fifteen and 
fifty. The remaining States contained something over Jive 
millions of white males between fifteen and fifty. The total 
white population of these respective portions of the country, 
was, in the former, five millions and a half, and in the lat- 



328 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

ter, twenty-one millions. ISTo account is here taken of 
the large districts in these eleven States which are within 
the lines of our armies, and from which the rebel armies 
cannot be recruited ; as, for example, the whole of Ten- 
nessee, a large portion of Arkansas, large portions of Vir- 
ginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, and indeed a part of each 
one of the eleven. In the comparison, we give the totals 
of each section, as shown by the census, thus allowing a 
great advantage to the rebels. Admitting that three- 
fourths of the number between fifteen and fifty years of 
age, — whether it be too great or too small, probably the 
former, is of no consequence in the comparison, — are 
physically qualified for the army, there are about nine 
hundred thousand men out of whom to make soldiers in 
the eleven rebel States, and thirty-seven hundred thousand 
in the remaining States. Tliis was about the proportion 
of fighting men within the range of the parties at the 
beginning of the rebellion. 

How does the case. as to men stand now, in the fourth 
year of the war ? It is probable that the losses on each 
side have not much changed the proportion, if any. K it 
be said that the Union armies have lost more in killed, 
as the rebels have generally acted on the defensive, this is 
fully or more than compensated by the fact that we have, 
by many thousands, a large excess of prisoners ; and also 
from the consideration that our well-organized Sanitary 
and Christian Commissions, and the abundant supply of 
every thing requisite in the Medical Department of the 
Union army, have contributed to the recovery of a larger 
proportion of our v^ounded than theirs, as the records from 
the battle-field and the hospital, and our knowledge of their 
lack of medical supplies, fully confirm. Upon the estimate, 
then, made largely from ofticial data, that there have been 
killed and disabled, in the Federal armies, half a million, 



NEGEO SOLDIERS. — THEIR NUMBER UNLIMITED. 329 

and upon the supposition that the rebels have lost the 
same, mimhei\ the latter have now left for military service 
\i\}Xfour hundred thousand white men, while the Govern- 
ment of the Union has thirty-two hundred thousand white 
men, from whom to recruit their armies. 

NEGRO SOLDIERS — THEIR NUMBER UNLIMITED. 

The foregoing calculation relates only to the material 
for white soldiers. President Lincoln states in his letter 
to Colonel Hodges, of Frankfort, Kentucky, under date of 
April 4, 1864, that there were then in the Federal service 
" quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, 
and laborers," of African descent. What proportion of 
this number carry a musket we do not know ; but from an 
official report made by Adjutant-General Thomas, on his 
return fi-om Mississippi in the summer of 1863, and from 
the rapid recruiting of negroes since, it is safe to say that 
there are now in the ranks of the Union armies as fighting 
men, at least one hundred thousand of this description. 

But be this estimate about negro soldiers as it may, the 
facts upon this branch of the subject, present and prospec- 
tive, are momentous as regards this question of the mili- 
tary strength of the respective parties. The rebels dare 
not^ to any large extent, make soldiers of their slaves ; 
while, into every rebel State where our armies penetrate, 
the recruiting office is opened, and thousands are soon en- 
rolled and drilled to fight for the Union cause ; and that 
negroes will fight bravely, and wben they have had suffi- 
cient disciphne will fight as well as white men, is too well 
attested by official reports from the highest commanders 
in our armies, for any persons who fully examine the case 
to doubt. 

It is true that a large number of white men are required 
at the North to do the work of agriculture, which in the 



330 PEOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

South is done by slaves. But so far as this affects tlie rel- 
ative strength of the material for soldiers of the two sec- 
tions, it is far more than counterbalanced by the vastly 
larger total number of white men at the North than at the 
South, and by the fact just mentioned, that, while the 
Union armies can be indefinitely recruited, and are daily 
being enhanced by that very laboring population of the 
South, — the slaves, — the rebels dare not^ except to a very 
limited extent, put their slaves into the ranks of their 
armies. The proof of this is sufficiently seen in the discus- 
sions which, from time to time, have taken place in the Rebel 
Congress on this very question. 

WHITE SOLDIERS SUFFICIENT. 

Taking, then, the facts of the past, based upon the ma- 
terial of white men for the war, and from them drawing 
the military horoscope of the future, and the case is imde- 
niable, — leaving out of view negro soldiers altogether, — 
that the loyal States can stand tlie brunt of battle much 
longer than the States in rebellion; and as the rebels now 
have, from the estimates given, but^/b^«r hundred thousand 
white men, all told, fit for military service, while the 
United States now have, of the same description, thirty^ 
tiKo hundred thousand^ the war, at the rate of loss of life 
thus far, need not continue as long as it has been raging 
in order to bury or disable every rebel capable of bearing 
arms; while the loyal section would still be left with 
twenty-eight hundred thousand men, or nearly three mil- 
lions^ fit for military service, with imillions more growing 
up at home, and tens of thousands annually coming in from 
Europe of whom we have taken no account, to attend to any 
of the little details concerning such questions ns the "Monroe 
Doctrine" and Maximilian, or other minor matters which 
the emergencies of the future may present. 



NATIONAL EESOUECES AND CEEDIT. 331 

NATIONAL RESOURCES AND CREDIT. 

There is cue element which we have not adverted to on 
the side of the United States, which is regarded as the 
" sinews of war." Many are appalled at the debt we are 
accumulating. A recent official statement from the Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, makes the debt at the end of three 
years of war, to be seventeen hundred and nineteen mil- 
lions. Admit that it will be doubled in three years more, 
or in round numbers will amount to thirty-five hundred 
millions, before which it will be seen the war must end, 
from the loss of rebel life, and still it will by no means 
equal the debt which Great Britain had contracted by her 
wars fifty years ago ; and yet. Great Britain then had, as 
a means of revenue for a taxable basis, less than half the 
population that the United States now have, and her other 
resources then as compared with ours now were far below 
them. With all this burden. Great Britain has been 
steadily advancing in greatness, power, and prosperity, as 
a nation, and to-day stands in the front rank of European 
Powers. The national credit of the United States, — based 
upon our unbounded resources, to a large extent yet unde- 
veloped, resources withm ourselves with which no nation 
of Western Europe can compare, — may have a great pres- 
sure upon it, but it will be found able to endure it. That 
we have been able to endure three years of such expendi- 
tures, and have kept up our credit to the point which has 
been maintained, without going to Europe to borrow 
money, has astonished the financiers of the Old World. 

The people will have pecuniary burdens without doubt, 
and so will our children ; but when it is a contest for 
national life, — a contest for law, order, popular govern- 
ment, freedom, and humanity, against treason, rebellion, 
anarchy, slavery, and eternal war, — that man has a soul 
15* 



332 PEOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE KEBELLION. 

that is craven, or is in sympathy with rebellion, or beset 
with childish fears, or is ignorant of the issues at stake, 
who is croaking about pecuniary burdens. While our 
fathers, sons, and brothers, are pouring out their hearts' 
Uood^ it is but a poor sacrifice we make to sustain the 
Government in whose cause they are engaged — with our 
money. 

THE RESULT. 

We repeat, then, that we have confidence that the Union 
cause will triumph, and that the rebellion will be crushed ; 
not merely because we have greater resources and power, 
but that God in His providence will operate through them 
to maintain the right and overthrow the wrong. In that 
overthrow, slavery, which is at the bottom of the strife, 
will perish forever from this land. The guns opened upon 
Fort Sumter, in April, 1861, sounded its death-knell; and 
not many more April suns will rise and set before patriot 
soldiers will exultingly discharge their trusty rifles over 
its grave. Such we believe to be the firm determination 
of the American people, led and sustained in the great 
and good work by the providence of God. 

GOVERNMENTAL DETERMINATION CONFRONTED. 

But at this point we are confronted. Rebel leaders, 
among politicians and divines, boldly declare that the 
Government in its present purposes against slavery, and 
the Northern people in sustaining it, are sinning with a 
high hand ; not only sinning against their rights as a 
people, but directly sinning against " the word, providence, 
and government of God," and are in " rebellion against 
the Lord God Omnipotent who ruleth!" 

This is rather a serious view of affairs. We must look 
at it. We are always disposed to give men the largest 



GOVEKNMENTAL DETEEMINATIOX CONFEONTED. 333 

liberty in the statement of their opinions ; and never more 
so than when they profess to set forth the will of God. 
As this is a grave indictment brought by one of the Lord's 
servants, it deserves examination. We will let Dr. Smyth, 
of Charleston, South Carolina, make the presentment in 
full. In the article from the Southern Presbyterian 
Bemeio for April, 1863, before referred to, he says : 

But the argument is lifted up to a far higher platform, when we con- 
sider slavery in reference to the word, providence, and government of 
God. That God's providence is holy, wise, and powerful; that it 
extendeth to all things and all events ; our enemies themselves profess 
to believe, even in their catechisms. Slavery, therefore, whether as a 
form of temporal, political, organized society, it is good or evil, is like 
other similar forms of evil, providential ; and as such, is under God's 
holy, wise, and powerful government, and to be acted upon only in 
accordance with the principles of His word and gospel, that by them 
God may, as it pleasoth Him, continue, remove, amehorate, or modify it, 
as it seemeth to Him wise and good. 

We wish we coidd say that Dr. Smyth, in other parts 
of this article (given in the preceding chapter), had taken 
views of God's "providence" no more in disagreement 
with His word than are found in this extract. He is right 
in saying that it "extendeth to all things." -He admits 
also that one of its bearings upon slavery, may be to 
" remove" it, provided this shall seem to God " wise and 
good." We are disposed then to inquire, What hinders 
him from conceding that to " remove" it is " wise and 
good ;" and that the " things" now occurring within this 
nation tending to that end, " all" of which are embraced 
in God's providence, are proper agencies for such a result ? 
It is not difficult to answer this question. He is a believer 
in the modern doctrine, that negro slavery is an " ordinance 
of God," that it is in itself " wise and good," and is a 
"blessing" to all concerned; and therefore that it is " in 
accordance with the principles of God's word and gospel," 



834 PEOYIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

to perpetuate it, to vindicate its righteousness, and to labor 
for its security and indefinite expansion. He thus does 
not deem it right to interfere with it by any measures 
whatever; for, as it is "to be acted upon only in accord- 
cince with the principles of God's word and gospel," 
and as His word is declared to be totally silent about 
emancipation, there are no such " principles" " in accord- 
ance with" which it can be terminated. It must therefore 
continue. It can never " please" God to " remove" it 
through the agency of man upon " the principles of His 
word," if it be true, as is claimed, that there are no such 
" principles" which meet the case. Nor is it even w^ithin 
the power of simple omnipotence to "remove" it "by 
them," if there are none. If, then, it shall ever be removed, 
it must be by miracle ; or upon " principles" not revealed ; 
or in utter defiance of the Almighty. 

There is, indeed, an apparent concession in this extract, 
— perhaps a real one, — that there are some " principles of 
God's word," "in accordance with" which slavery m^y 
be removed. But nothing is more sure than that all 
Southern writers, and Dr. Smyth among them, insist that 
the " Gospel" is idterlu silent upon emancipation ; that 
there is nothing in the New Testament about the thing or 
the process. All his talk then about its removal upon 
such " principles" is idle. His real position, as his whole 
article shows, is that which we have given : that slavery 
is a divine institution, an " ordinance," to be vindicated, 
expanded, perpetuated. 

OPPOSITION TO SLAVERY FIGHTING AGAINST GOD. 

Dr. Smyth is therefore utterly opposed to any action 
whatever for the removal of slavery ; and especially does 
he regard the measures of the United States Government 
impious and abhorrent to the last degree. But let us hear 



THE GOVERNMENT VINDICATED. 335 

him upon tliis 2:)oint, and then examine his reasoning and 
conclusi<ms. The foregoing extract makes up his premises. 
In the next words immediately following the above quo- 
tation, and as a deduction from them, he continues as fol- 
lows : 

And to wage a war of exterminatiou against slavery, — a war in itself 
wicked and unconstitutional [what a becoming and sincere regard these 
rebels have that the Gonstitution shall not be violated!], and carried on 
in a spirit of diabolical perfidy and inhumanity, — is to fight against 
God, and to run against the thick bosses of the Almighty. It is 
rebellion against the Lord God Omnipotent who ruleth. To participate 
in it, is to join in conspiracy against the throne and empire of Heaven. 
And did not the South come up to the help of the Lord against the 
mighty, she would involve herself in the divine malediction with which 
the inhabitants of Meroz were cursed. 

Upon the foregoing we offer a few considerations. The 
position in which the Government of the United States 
and the people who sustain it in prosecuting the war 
against rebellion are here placed, would be regarded of 
little consequence did such effusions emanate from the 
secular press of Richmond or Charleston ; but coming as 
they do from a clergyman of high position and iniiuence 
at the South, and addressed as they are to the more serious- 
minded portion of those in rebellion, they call for an 
examination. 

THE GOVERN^IENT VINDICATED IN DESTROYING SLAVERY. 

All argument upon " slavery in reference to the loord''^ 
of God, we defer to a succeeding chapter. We say, how- 
ever, here and now, that we admit that slavery is " to be 
acted upon only in accordance with the principles of His 
word and Gospel," — so far as there are any which bear 
upon the case, or at least not upon any "principles" which 
contravene any thing which God has revealed in His 



336 PEOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE KEBELLION. 

" word,"— and we are quite willing to hold the Government, 
in its present attitude towards slavery, strictly to this test. 

In regard, then, to the chief matters contained in these 
extracts, our position is, that while we admit in the main, 
and for the argument's sake, Dr. Smyth's premises in the 
former about " providence," we deny his conclusions in 
the latter concerning the course of the Government and 
the people who sustain it. 

There is no ground for dispute with Dr. Smyth about 
the justice of war. A nation may engage in war in a just 
cause as acceptably to God as it may serve Him in any 
other way. The civil magistrate is armed with the sword 
by God's express authority. Furthermore, in a just war, 
it may be as clearly the duty of an individual to engage, 
as to pray ; and God may accept the service. Dr. Smyth 
of course admits all this, for he exhorts the South to war. 
We do not now argue with Quakers or other non-com- 
batants. 

The only points in question are two : Is the United 
States Government 7ioic engaged in a just war? Is its 
present attitude towards slavery., in this war, justifiable ? 
These two points cover the whole case. We take them 
separately. 

ITS EIGHT OF SELF-PEESERVATIOlSr. 

I. Is this a just war on the part of the United States ? 

We aim, on both points, only to give a synopsis of the 
arguments by which the affirmative may be sustained, and 
not to exhaust the subject or to go into it at length. 

1. If God's word teaches any thing that is plain, it is 
this: that a nation may justly draw the sword to main- 
tain its authority against all evil-doers, even in the execu- 
tion of its ordinary legislation ; and especially may it do 
this to put down an armed rebellion, seeking to overthrow 



ITS EIGHT OF SELF-PEESEEVATION". 337 

its supreme authority, and to subvert lawful Government, 
which is an ordinance of God. If a man denies this, he 
denies the very letter and spirit of Apostolic teachings, 
and admits a principle under which it would be impossible 
to maintain civil Government at all; he hinds in anarcliy ; 
and, therefore, we cannot now have any controversy with 
him. Dr. Smyth admits this as a Scriptural principle. 
The South act upon it ; punishing with severity, even with 
deatli, those whom they adjudge guilty of treason in rebel- 
ling^ against their rebellion. 

2. Nothing is more certain in point of fact than this: 
that the people of the South are now openly resisting the 
supreme authority and lawful Government of the United 
States ; even resisting " the Constitution, to which," as 
Dr. Thornwell says, " these States sv^ore allegiance.'''' It 
is perfectly immaterial to the immediate issue in hand, 
whether that resistance be called " rebellion," or " revolu- 
tion," or by the apparently softer term, " secession." The 
Southern orators and papers have called it each by turn, as 
it suited their purpose It may be one, or the other, or 
all, but it amounts to the same thing. It is, in fact, armed 
resistance to lawful Goveriiment. It Avas that at the first 
instant of the movement. It is that still. 

If those concerned complain of being called " rebels" and 
'* traitors," and their work " rebellion," — as Dr. Smyth 
and all the rest loudly do, — let the justice of such com- 
plaints be tested by their own standard. Those who have 
claimed the right of States to " secede" from the Southern 
Confederacy, — as has been done in the Rebel Congress by 
disaifected members, — and who have said that they would 
put that right in practice in certain contingencies, have been 
denounced in that Congress and in the Richmond journals as 
"traitors ;" and even the utterance of such sentiments has 
been stigmatized in that body as " treasonable ;" and any 



338 PBOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE EEBELLION. 

*' overt act" which should be taken in that direction has been 
denounced as worthy of death. Such States, it was said, 
should be " restrained by the bayonet." If, then, to 
"secede from the Southern Confederacy," where the 
principle of " secession" is acknowledged as fundamental, 
and out of which that Confederacy originated, be justly 
deemed "treason" and "rebellion," then a fortiori, with 
much stronger reason is it " treason" and " rebellion" for 
the Southern States to '' secc3de" from the United States, 
where no such principle is acknowledged. Laying aside 
then the main and conclusive considerations on which the 
charge of rebelling against the lawful authority and Gov- 
ernment of the United States may be sustained against the 
Southern States and people, the charge is amply sustained 
when tried by their own standard. 

As the Southern rebellion has taken the form of armed 
resistance and is making war, the Government assailed 
has the right to overcome this resistance by the same 
means, and is making war for this purpose ^nd to main- 
tain its authority. As a rights therefore, a right by the 
word of God^ the Government of the United States is 
carrying on a lawful war to maintain its lawful authority. 

DESTRUCTION OF SLAVERY A LAWFUL MEANS TO THIS 

END. 

n. Is the Government justified, in order to its success 
in putting down rebellion, in aiming to destroy slavery ? 

We of course now speak of slavery in the Rebel States 
only, and of the action of the Government as confined to 
its operations in war. As the result of the rebellion, or 
occasioned by it, we have already stated that Congress 
undoubtedly will, ultimately, amend the Constitution and 
prohibit slavery in the whole land forever. By its war 
measures and war power, the Government are striking at 



DESTRUCTION OF SLAVERY. 339 

slavery in the whole rebel dommions, and aim to destroy 
it root and branch. Is this right ? — or, as charged, Is this 
" to hght against God," a " rebellion against the Lord 
God Omnipotent who ruleth," and a " conspiracy against 
the throne and empire of Heaven ?" We sustain the Gov- 
ernment in this determination, and will give om* reasons. 

The gromids of om- vindication are these : A nation in 
a just war may adopt any measures for its success w'hich 
are deemed necessary^ provided they are not inconsistent 
w^ith the principles of justice, and are sustained by the laws 
and usages of war among civilized nations. Those laws 
and usages permit a nation to attack slavery and free the 
slaves of an enemy, and use them against the enemy, in 
order to its success in war ; and of the necessity of these 
measures the party adopting them is to be the judge. 
This applies to war between " nations" proper — to foreign 
war ; much more, on the same authority, may these means 
be resorted to in putting down rebellion. 

The justification or condemnation of such measures, as 
properly belonging or not to the code of war, cannot be 
settled by an appeal to Scripture, for the word of God 
says nothing whatever on the subject. It is w^orse than 
idle, therefore, to arraign the Government before the bar 
of Revelation, on a matter where Kevelation is utterly 
silent. The only standard by which the case can be 
determined, is the one already mentioned : the laws of w^ar 
as illustrated in the usages of civilized nations; and to 
give the case the fairest chance, we are quite willing to 
take our examples from those nations of modern times 
where Christianity has the greatest influence. Taking 
these principles for our guide, and scanning the facts 
which the course of the Government has developed, and it 
will be seen that the Government has not only kept within 
the limits of its authority, in reference to this simple issue, 



340 PEOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

as determined by the criterion mentioned, but has con- 
ducted with a forbearance toward slavery in the Kebel 
States which has excited the wonder of other nations, 
and upon which history will record its judgment for 
remarkable leniency. 

Before citing the authorities to sustain the positions 
taken, let us note the course which the Government has 
pursued. 

FORBEAKANCE OF THE GOVERNMENT WITH SLAVERY. 

We have given the proof, and the South universally 
admit the fact, that their resistance to the Government, — 
their "secession," — was to establish more securely the 
institution of slavery, which they imagined to be in peril 
from the Government. Slavery is thus, in a sense well 
understood, the cause of the rebellion and the war. The 
President and the party that put him in power were pub- 
licly pledged, previous to his election, and also in his Inau- 
gural Address, not to interfere with slavery where it was 
lawfully established. The whole South hnew of these 
pledges. They were kept inviolate. The proof of all this 
we have given. When the rebellion had proceeded so far 
as actually to fire upon the flag and vessels of the United 
States in the harbor of Charleston, and when the Gov- 
ernment called out forces to put it down, the President 
and Congress still maintained the principle of non-inter- 
ference referred to, and uniformly took the ground, and 
declared by acts, resolutions, and proclamations, the doc- 
trine, that the war was " not waged for any purpose of 
overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established 
institutions of the States [meaning thereby, especially, 
slavery\ ; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of 
the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the 



FOEBEAEANCE OF THE GOVEEKTMENT. 341 

dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unim- 
paired."* 

It was found at length, that, instead of being an element 
of weakness, as at first supposed, slavery was an element 
of great strength to the rebellion ; indeed, its vital sup- 
port, as the rebels themselves declared. It was believed, 
that, as slavery in the Rebel States was in open conflict 
with the Government, one or the other must be destroyed 
in the region over which the rebellion held sway. It was 
then resolved to strike the rebellion in its most efficient 
support, and thus save the Government from its most 
deadly enemy. As the Government was clothed with 
God's authority to sustain itself and put down the rebel- 
lion, it was clothed with God's authority to use all neces- 
sary and laicful means to that end. It was, from the 
nature of the case, constituted, for the time being, the sole 
judge of the essential means, being responsible to God and 
the people. f 

* These words are from the resolutions passed unanimously by the House of Eep- 
rcsentatives, July, ISOl, offered by Mr. Crittenden, of Kentucky. 

t We do not of course entertain any question that may be raised here, as between 
the simple power of the Pi-esident, by Proclamation or otherwise, as Commander-in- 
Chief of the Array and Navy, and Congress, touching the jurisdiction of the Execu- 
tive and Legislative branches of the Government over matters of war. It is by no 
means essential to the sole point in hand. When we speak of the Government in its 
attitude toward slavery under the laws of war, we speak simply of the authority of 
the United States to put down rebellion, whether the particular measures of the war 
are determined by the President, as Commander-in-Chief, or by the Executive and 
Legislative branches of the Government together. Asa fact, however. Congress has 
substantially sustained, either tacitly or by direct legislation, all the acts of the 
Executive in regard to slavery. In a speech made in Chicago. July 14, 1864, by the 
Hon. Isaac K Arnold, a member of the present Congress, he says: "On the 13th of 
January, 1864, 1 introduced the following bill, which has been embodied substantially 
in another which passed Congress: 'Be it enacted, <&c.. That in all the States and 
parts of states designated in said Proclamation as in rebellion (the Proclamation 
against slavery, January 1, 1863), the re-enslaving or holding, or attempting to hold 
in slavery, any person who shall have been declared free by said Proclamation, or 
any of their descendants, otherwise than in the punishment of crime, whereof the 
accused shall have been duly convicted, is and shall be forever prohibited, any law 
of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.'" The Executive and Legislative 
branches of the Government are thus united in support of that measure. 



342 PEOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 



EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 

When the Government determined to strike at slavery, 
by the Proclamation of September 22, 1862, the war had 
been going on for a year and a half with varying success. 
The measure was deemed a necessity, and was adopted, 
not for the purpose of interfering with slavery, in itself 
considered, but to put down the rebellion, and as a means 
solely to that end ; the President stating, in this Procla- 
mation, " that hereafter as heretofore, the war will be pros- 
ecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitu- 
tional relation between the United States and the people 
thereof in those States in which that relation is, or may be, 
suspended or disturbed." In this Proclamation, one hun- 
dred days were allowed to the people of the States in re- 
bellion to lay down their arms and save the institution 
harmless ; and loyal persons in rebel districts were prom- 
ised compensation "for all losses by acts of the United 
States, including the loss of slaves ;" a promise which any 
Cono^ress would have felt bound to redeem. On the non- 
acceptance of these terms, all slaves in rebel districts to be 
designated on the 1st of Jannary, 1863, were to be declared 
free. The terms proposed not having been accepted, the 
President issued a Proclamation of this date, declaring all 
slaves within such districts "henceforward free." He 
here states as before, this, " as a fit and necessary tear 
measure for suppressing the rebellion." He enjoins "ujDon 
the people so declared to be free, to abstain from all vio- 
lence, unless in necessary self-defence," and exhorts them 
to " labor faithfully for reasonable wages ;" declares that 
" such persons of suitable condition will be received into 
the armed service of the United States ;" and concludes 
thus : " And upon this, sincerely believed to be an act of 
justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military ne- 



ITS FINAL DETERMINATION JUSTIEIED. 343 

cessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and 
tlie gracious favor of Almighty God." 

Upon the principles laid down in justification of the 
Government for attempting the overthrow of slavery as a 
means for suppressing rebellion, its wonderful forbearance 
is illustrated in this, that what it finally did on the 1st of 
January, 1863, after eighteen and a half months of war, it 
might have done on the 15th of April, 1861, when the 
President issued his first Proclamation for troops for the 
same purpose. 

ITS FINAL DETERMINATION JUSTIFIED. 

We have now to see whether competent authorities sus- 
tain the position we have taken. The issue made is 
reduced to this : to destroy slavery in the Rebel States, in 
order to overthrow rebellion and restore and maintain 
the national authority. Is the destruction of slavery a 
lawful means to that lawful end ? Dr. Smyth will not 
pretend that on this point we have any express revelation 
in "the word of God." For him, therefore, to assert, 
that " to wage a war of extermination against slavery," is 
" in itself wicked," and is " rebellion against God," is to 
assume the whole case. 

The present object, — to maintain the complete authority 
and jurisdiction of the Government, — is, by " the word 
of God," a lawful object ; and war, as a means to that end, 
is, by "the word of God," lawful. But upon the special 
measures of war for such a purpose, " the word of God" 
is silent. There is, then, no other course to be taken, — 
no other safe criterion of judgment, — but to fall back upon 
the laws of war, as seen in the usages of civilized and 
Christian nations ; those principles and usages which they 
regard as founded in the soundest reason and jiistice. 
Here the authorities to sustain the United States Govern- 



344 PKOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE EEBELLION. 

noent in its present course toward slavery in the Rebel 
States are overwhelming. 

These authorities may be reduced to the following 
points : General principles of the laws of war, as laid down 
by writers on the laws of nations ; the usages of the most 
enlightened nations under these laws ; decisions of national 
authorities on cases submitted; the practice of military 
couimanders, sustained by their respective Governments; 
the course of the United States Government in former 
wars ; the opinions of eminent statesmen, and among them 
statesmen of our own country, uttered in former times, 
concerning the possible occurrence of just such an emer- 
gency as that in which the United States Government now 
finds itself placed. 

The amount of this testimony bears upon two points, 
all that are essential to the present case : that a nation at 
war may emancipate the slaves of another nati(jn with 
which it is at war, as a means to its military success ; and 
that it may use those thus emancipated in its military 
service. 

SUSTAINED BY THE LAWS OF WAR. 

In regard to the Laws of War, the general principles to 
which we refer are sufficiently comprehended in the fol- 
lowing points : Standard writers declare, that " war, 
when duly declared or officially recognized, gives to one 
belligerent the right to deprive the other of every thing 
which might add to his strength, mid enable him to carry 
on hostilities^'' This "general right" is limited by the 
" law of nations ;" and the limitations, with many things 
embraced within them, are specified by all standard wri- 
ters; but among these, slaves are not mentioned. They 
come under that general designation of " property" which 
a belligerent may take and use against the enemy. The 



SUSTAINED BY THE LAWS OF WAR. 345 

laws and usages of nations, ancient and modern, deem 
them liable to capture.* 

So well settled was this principle under the Roman law, 
— and the same principle obtains among other nations 
where slaves are recognized as mere " property,'' — that 
the " captor holds by a title which will become complete 
by the return of peace, without any treaty stipulation 
prescribing the contrary ; but until that time the title is 
liable to be lost by recapture, and the application of what 
is known in law as the jus postliminiiy This latter 
feature of the Roman law was to this effect : Under it 
certain persons and certain things, captured in war, were 
restored to their former condition, "on coming again 
imder the power of the nation to which they formerly belong- 
ed ;" as, for example, the son came again under the power 

* Upon the general principles of the Laws of War referred to, are the following 
authorities, from which it will be seen, that this important principle In addition to 
those mentioned is laid down, that all persons belonging to "hostile States," are 
made "legal enemies" by war, — thus, in its application to the case in hand, giving 
the Government authority over all the slaves in the Eebel States : " It has already 
been stated, that war, when duly declared or officially recognized, makes legal ene- 
mies of all individual members of hostile States ; that it also extends to property, 
and gives to one belligerent the right to deprive the other of every thing which 
might add to his strength, and enable him. to carry on hostilities. But this gene- 
ral right is subject to numerous modifications and limitations, which have been 
introduced by custom and the positive law of nations. Thus, although, by the 
extreme right of war, all property of an enemy is deemed hostile and subject to 
seizure, it by no means follows that all such property is subject to appropriation or 
condemnation ; for the positive law of nations distinguishes, not only between the 
property of the State and that of its individual subjects, but also between that of dif- 
ferent classes of subjects, and between ditferent kinds of property of the same 
subject." "All implements of war, military and naval stores, and, in general, all 
movable property belonging to the hostile State, is subject to be seized, and appro- 
priated to the use of the captor." " There is one species of movable property, be- 
longing to a belligerent State, which is exempt, not only from plunder and destruc- 
tion, but also from capture and conversion, viz., State papers, public archives, 
historical records, judicial and legal documents, land titles," &c. "The reasons of 
tins rule are manifest: their destrxiction wotild not operate to promote, in any 
respect, the war." " It would be an injury done in war, beyond the necessity of 
war, and therefore illegal, barbarous, and cruel." — ffallecki'a Int. Law, and Law of 
War, Ch. XIX. sees. 1, 7, 9. 



346 PEOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE EEBELLION. 

of his parent, and the recaptured slave came into posses- 
sion of his former master, instead of becoming the prop- 
erty of the State. 

The principle is thus well and universally established, 
that slaves, coming into possession of a belligerent or cap- 
tured from an enemy in war, are subject to the captor's 
disposal, unless recaptured. This is settled by the laws 
of war, as understood alike among ancient and modern 
nations. They differ on one point. In ancient times, the 
captor might sell them, or make any other disposition of 
them, as with other captured " property ;" or he might 
free them. In either case, whether regarded as property 
or as freedmen, he could employ them against the enemy 
in any capacity, just as any other property or freemen 
under his control might be thus employed. But the laws 
of war as seen in the usages among nations of modern 
times, with rare excejotions, restrict the disposition of 
slaves captured in war to giving them their freedom ; that 
is, do not allow their re-enslavement. 

SUSTAINED BY EXAMPLES OF SEVEEAL NATIONS. 

The right by the laws of nations, and the actual prac- 
tice under the laws of war, to emancipate the slaves of an 
enemy, is unquestionable, and is illustrated by many ex- 
amples ; and the cases very fully sustain the position that 
no other proper disposition can be made of captured slaves 
than to give them their freedom. 

This right, as a war measure, has been often exercised 
in modern times : as, for example, by Great Britain, in the 
war of the Revolution with her American Colonies, and in 
that with the United States in 1812 ;* by France, in the 

* The Proclamations of Lord Dunraore, Lord Cornwallis, and Sir Henry Clinton, 
are well known. In the war of the Eevolution, they received thousands of slaves 
into the British army, giving them their freedom. By the Treaty of Peace iu 1783, 



ILLUSTRATED BY CASES IN THE UNITED STATES. 347 

Island of St. Domingo, in 1793-94; by Spain in Colum- 
bia, South America, through Generals Murillo and Bolivar ; 
and by the United States, in some of its wars, through 
Generals Jesup, Taylor, and Gaines, whose acts were 
sustained and approved by Congress, and by several 
Presidents. 

ILLUSTRATED BY CASES IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In regard to the United States, the practice of the Gov- 
ernment in former wars has been to consider slaves cap- 
tured in war as 2-f7'isoners of war, and to declare and 
insure their freedom. 

In 1836, General Jesup employed certain "fugitive 
slaves" as guides, and for their services gave them their 
freedom and sent them to the West to enjoy it. His con- 
duct was approved by the administrations of Presidents 
Van Buren and John Tyler. The case of Louis, w^hich 
occurred in the saine year, is in point. He was the 
escaped slave of Pncheco, and had fought against the 
United States. On his being captured, and while held as 
a prisoner of war, his master demanded him as his prop- 
erty : but the demand was refused, and Louis was declared 

the British Government promised to take no slaves out of the country, hut a great 
many went with them. On the complaint of General Washinsrton for such violation 
of the Treaty, and a demand for their return, Sir Guy Carleton admitted that his 
Government was bound to make compensation, but insisted on the absolute freedom 
of those taken away, declaring that "His Majesty" did not allow his officers to take 
from " these negroes the liberty of which he fovnd them possessed."' Certain adju- 
dicated cases by the British authorities go even beyond this. Certain slaves on board 
the American brig Creole, destined from Hampton Eoads to New Orleans mutinied, 
killed a slave-owner, and compelled the crew to take the vessel into Nassau, a British 
port. The authorities examined the case, found nineteen concerned in the murder, but 
gave the rest their liberty. The British Government, " on grounds of comity," made 
compensation for the released slaves, but refused to return them. A decision of 
Chief-Justice Best, of England, upon the rights of negroes, in the case of Admiral 
Cockbuni, upon whose vessel escaped slaves had taken refuge, is important. He 
declared: " He was not bound to receive them upon his ship in the first instance, 
but having done so, he could no more have forced them back into alavery than he 
could have committed them to the deep."— C'i^6<i in PhiUimore\s Internntional Law. 

16 



348 peovide:ntial designs in the kebellion. 

free. The course of General Jesiip wns sustained and 
approved by the President and Lis Cabinet ; and at a sub- 
sequent period, when Pacheco lai<l his claim for compen- 
sation for the loss of Louis before Congress, that body 
sustained the Aduiinistration by rejecting a bill for such 
purpose. 

In the year 1838, General Zachary Taylor captured cer- 
tain persons, during the war in Floridn, who were claimed 
as fugitive slaves. Certain citizens of that State demanded 
their release and restoiation. Old " Rough and Ready" 
told them that he had none but prisoners of war. They 
wished to see them, to ascertain if he ha<i their slaves in his 
pos^:es-i(m. He would not grant their request, and bid 
them depart. On this being reported to the War Depart- 
ment, his course was approved by the President ; and the 
slaves were declared free and sent to the West. 

Another casejoccurred in 1838, in the Southwestern 
Department of the Army, which is very broad in its rela- 
tions to the present war, and the status of the sLive in 
regard to the laws of war. A large number of fugitive 
slaves and Indians, who had been captured in w;ir in 
Florida, had been ordere<l West of the Mississippi. Some 
of the former were claimed at New Orleans by their 
owners, and the case was brought into Court. Genei'al 
Edmund P. Gaines was then in command of that Depart- 
ment. He refused to give up the fugitives on the demand 
of the sheriif, and made his defence in court in person. 
His reasons for refusal were as follows : 

That these men, women, and children, were captured in war ; that, as 
Commander of that Mihtaiy Department, he held them subject only to the 
order of the National Executive ; that he could recognize no other power 
in time of war, as authorized to take prisoners from his possession. 
He asserted that in time of war, all slaves ivere belligerents as well as 
their masters. The slave-men cultivate the earth and supply provisions. 
The women cook the food and nurse the sick, and contribute to the 



ANOTHER CASE. EMrEKOE ALEXANDER. 349 

maintenance of the war often more than the sanm number of males. The 
slave children equally contribute whatever they are able to the support 
of the war. The military officer can enter into no judicial examination 
of the claim of one man to the bone and muscle of another, as property ; 
nor could he, as a military officer, know what the laws of Florida were 
while engaged in maintaining tlie Federal Government by force of arms. 
In such a case, he could only be guided by the laws of war ; and what- 
ever may be the laws of any State, they must yield to the safety of the 
.Federal Government. — House Doc. No. 225, lUh Congress. 

The result in the foregoing case was, that it was dis- 
missed, the slaves were sent to the West, and became free. 

ANOTHER CASE. EMPEROR ALEXANDER. 

A case of great importance was decided, growing out 
of the war of 1812, in which the United States and Great 
Britain were parties ; one point of which was referred for 
adjudication to the Emperor Alexander of Russia. The 
British, acting according to the law^s of war, had captured 
a large nuii.ber of slaves. The Treaty of Ghent, which 
fixed the terms of peace, required that compensation for 
some of those then in their possession should be made ; but 
it was for those only that were, at the time of the ratifica- 
tion of the Treaty, within the districts to be delivered up to 
the United States. The Government, under President 
Madison, did not claim that those who had been set free, 
and sent during the war beyond the limits of the United 
States, should even he paid for • much less that they 
should be delivered up to their masters, to be again 
remitted to slavery. Here was a clear acknowledgment on 
the part of the United States, that, by the laws of war, 
slaves captured in tear are free., thenceforicard and for- 
ever; and that they are not even to be paid for, except 
upon special stipulation between the parties at war. The 
point which was submitted to the Russian Emperor grew 
out of the construction of the Treaty. The British Gov- 



350 PKOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

ernraent contended that the Treaty did not include, for 
compensation, slaves who were still on British vessels 
which were lying, at the time of the ratilication, in Ameri- 
can w\aters. The Emperor decided against the British 
interpretation, and gives the grounds of his decision thus : 
" It is upon the consti'uction of the text of the article as it 
stands, that the arbitrator's decision should be founded." 
The British Government objecting, the Emperor adds : 
"The Emperor having, by mutual consent of the two 
plenipotentiaries, given an opinion founded solely upon 
the sense which results from the text of the article in dis- 
pute, does not think himself called upon to decide any 
question relative to what the laws ofvxcr permit or forbid 
to belligerents." This setting of " the text of the article" 
construed over against "the laws of war," in this manner, 
leads to the conclusion timt the Emperor, at that time " the 
largest slave-holder in the world," deemed that these laws 
allowed the emancipation of slaves captured in war, and 
that when so emancipated they could not be recovered. 

These numerous cases show^ conclusively that the United 
States Government has maintained the doctrine, in its 
military and civil administration, that, by the laws of war, 
slaves captured in war are, ij^so facto^ thenceforward and 
forever free.* 

OPINIONS OF E^VIINENT STATESMEN. 

The general doctrine maintained in these examples by 
the United States, accords w^ith the sentiments of her most 
eminent statesmen. Thomas Jefferson, w^hen complaining 

* To this there is an exception ; Lut, as an exception, it serves to confirm the rule 
otherwise so fully established and illustrated by actual cases. Our Government 
maintained the oi)posite doctrine against Great Britain in 1820, when John Quincy 
Adams was Secretary of State ; but that great statesman has left it on record, that 
while he faithfully represented his Government on that point, he totally dissented 
from the doctrine itself. He says : " It was utterly against my j udgment and wishes : 
but I was obliged to submit, and prepared the requisite dispatches." 



OPINIONS OF EMINENT STATESMEN. 351 

of the acts of Lord Cornwallis, in the Revolutionary war, 
admits the principle that slaves may be taken from an 
enemy in war, and that when taken may be freed. In a 
letter to Dr. Gordon, found in his works, he ^ays : 

From an estimate I made at that time (1779), on the best informa- 
tion I could collect, I suppose the State of Virginia lost, under Lord 
Cornwallis's hand, that year, about thirty thousand slaves. * * * 
He used, as was to be expected, all my stock of cattle, sheep, and hogs, 
for the sustenance of his army, and carried off all the horses capable of 
service. -^ * * He carried off also about thirty slaves. Had this 
been to give them freedom, he would have done riyhl ; but it was to con- 
sign them to inevitable death from the small-pox and putrid fever then 
raging in his camp. 

In a debate in the House of Representatives in 1836, 
John Quincy Adams announced w^hat it would be compe- 
tent for the Government to do w^ith slavery, under 
precisely the circumstances that now exist. As a states- 
man, his views, uttered in the following sentence, com- 
mand respect : 

From the instant that 3'our slaveholding States become the theatre of 
war, civil, servile, or foreign, from that instant tlie war powers of Con- 
gress extend to interference with the institution of slavery in every 
way in which it can be interfered with, from a claim of indemnity for 
slaves taken or destroyed, to the cession of the State burdened with 
slavery to a foreign power. 

Again, in the House of Representatives, in 1842, after 
stating that slavery was abolished in Colombia, South 
America, first by the Spanish Military Commander, Gen- 
eral Murillo, and then by the American General Bolivar, 
simply by a military order given at the head of the army^ 
and that its abolition continued to this day, Mr. Adams 
says : 

In a state of actual war, the laws of war take precedence over civil 
laws and municipal institutions. I lay this down as the law of nations. 
I cay that the military authority takes for the time the place of all 



352 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

municipal institutions, slavery among the rest; and that, under that state 
of things, so far from its being true, that the States where slavery 
exists liave the exclusive management of the subject, notonhj the Presi- 
dent of the United Slates^ hut the commander of tJie army, has the power to 
order the emancipation of the slaves. * * * When your country is 
actually in war, whether it be a war of invasion or a war of insurrec- 
tion, Congress has power to carry on the war, and must carry it on 
according to the laws of war ; and, by the laws of war, an invaded 
country has all its laws and municipal institutions swept by the board, 
and martial law takes the place of them. 

If we choose to go back to the times of our Revolu- 
tionary war, we find legislation in abundance by tlie States, 
both South, North, and by Congress, for recruiting the 
army of Washington from among slaves ; and this legis- 
lation provided that those slaves should receive the boon 
of freedom for their services ;* and this course was 
sustained by the most eminent patriots of that era. 

* Among other instances of legislation, "In Congress, March 29, 1779," it was 
" Resolved, That it be recommended to the States of South Carolina and Georgia, If 
they shall think the same expedient, to take measures immediately for raising three 
thousand able-bodied negroes ; that the said negroes be formed into separate corps, 
as battalions, according to the arrangements adopted for the main army ;'' and " that 
every negro who shall well and faithfully serve as a soldier to the end of the prest-nt 
war, and shall then return his arms, he emancipated, and receive the sum of fifty 
dollars." Many of the States acted without any recommendation from Congress. 
The General Assembly of Ehode Island adopted the following: " Whereas, History 
affords us frequent precedents of the wisest, the freest, and bravest nations having 
liberated their slaves, and enlisted them as soldiers to fight in defence of their 
country. * * * Resolred, That every slave so enlisting, shall, upon his passing 
muster, &o., be immediately discharged from the service of his master or mistress 
and be ohsohotely fr ee, as though he had never been encumbered with any kind of 
servitude or slavery." In Virginia, certain slaveholders sent their slaves to the 
army, with a " promise" of freedom, but after the war attempted to re-enslave them ; 
showing some had faith in Old as in Modern Virginia. But perhaps this had hlood 
did not then run in the veins of the "first families," as it has since done, for the 
General Assembly of that State, by solemn enactment, rebuked such perfldj', in 
1783. in "An Ac* directing the Emancipation of certain slaves who had served as 
soldiers in this State, and for the Emancipation of the slave Aberdeen." The depth 
of this perfidy is seen in two or three facts stated in this Act: that ^'- many persons 
in this State had caused their slaves to enlist," they "having tendered such slaves" 
to the recruiting officers as '•'■ suhstitules''^ for their own dear selves, "at the same 
time representing to such recruiting officers, that the slaves, so enlisted, were 



OPINIONS OF EMINENT STATESMEN. 353 

Alexander Hamilton, in a letter to John Jay, in 1119, 
speaking of these measures, says : " An essential part of 
the plan is to give them their freedorti with their muskets." 
This, he said, would "have a good influence on those wlio 
remain, by opening a door to their emancipation^ 

James Madison, in a letter to Joseph Jones, in 1V80, 
advocating the policy of arming and freeing the slaves, 
says: 

I am glad to find tlie Legislature (of Yirgiaia) persist in their resolu- 
tion to recruit their hne of the army for the war ; though without deci- 
ding on the expediency of the mode under their consideration, would it 
not he as loell to liberate and make soldiers at once of the blacks {hernsdves, 
as to make them instruments for enlisting white soldiers ? It would 
certainly be more consonant with the principles of liberty, which ought 
never to be lost sight of m a contest for liberty. 

Thus, the most eminent statesmen of the early days of 
the Republic took the ground that slaves might properly 
be employed in the armies of the Union, and that all such 
should be voluntarily emancipated. 

freemen^'' and that " the former o^\^lers have attempted again to force them to return 
to a state of servitude, contrnry to the principles of justice, and to their own 
solemn promise;' thus backing up this bad faith with very bad falsehoods. As " many 
persons" were here concerned, it would be strange if some of the "first families" were 
not involved. But the Legislature enacted that all such persons " shall, from and after 
the passing of this act, be fully and completely emancipated, and shall be held and 
deemed free, in as full and ample a manner as if each and every of them were specially 
named in this act ; and the Attorney-General for the Commonwealth is hereby requir- 
ed to commence an action, in forma pauperis, in behalf of any of the persons above 
described, who shall, after the passing of this act, be detained in servitude by any 
person whatsoever;" and the act directs that "a jury shall be impannelled to assess 
the damages for the detention" of persons so declared free. In Massachusetts, many 
negroes were enrolled in the army, though slavery had been abolished in 1776. The 
Judiciary of that State held that the Declaration of Independence was an edict of 
emanciiiation. In Xew York, the Legislature in 17S1 provided for the enlistment of 
slaves, and enacted that any one " who shall serve for the term of three years, or 
until ri-gularly discharged, shall, immediately after such service or discharge, be, 
a;id is hereby declared to be, a free man of this State." Other States passed similar 
acis. 



854 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE EEBELLION. 

TINDICATION COMPLETE AGAINST IDLE DECLAMATION. 

In view of the testimony now given, from all the fore- 
going sources, can any tiling be more idle, absurd, and fana- 
tical, than the outcry, that the determination of the Gov- 
ernment to oveithrow shivery in the Rebel States, in order 
to save itself from destiuction, is " in itself wicked nnd 
unconstitutional," and a " conspiracy against the throne 
and empire of Heaven ?" 

If it be said that the acts of the Executive, in giving 
freedom to the slaves by 'proclamation ^ do not come within 
the strict line of the authorities given, it is only necessary 
to i-ay, that we presume no one supposed that the Pre- 
sident intended to effect their liberty by that measure 
alone. It was a simple notification to rebel masters of the 
war policy of the Government ; an opportunity extended 
to return to loyalty and save slavery, if they chose; ynd a 
warning of the consequences for continued rebellion. Sla- 
very, if overthrown in the Rebel States by the Government, 
will be subverted by actual %cai\ under the laii^s of loar. 
On that simple point, it is most conclusively sustained. 

SUSTAINED AGAINST THE REBEL CONGRESS. 

After consulting the authorities given, and among them 
the numerous cases where our own Government has vindi- 
cated the right of slaves to freedom, when taken in war, 
it is somewhat edifying to read what the Rebel Congress 
say on this point, in an " Address to the People of the 
Confederate States," issued in February, 1864. Among 
other things, they say : " Emancipation of sha es, as a wise 
measure, has been severely condemned and denounced by 
the most eminent publicists in Europe and the United 
States." They here refer to the Pi-esident's Proclamation. 
Whether this may be a " wise measure," men may differ. 



SUSTAINED AGAINST THE REBEL CONGRESS. 355 

The rebels declaim against it, because of its inhumanity; 
bat this Address calls it " a mere hruttun fuhnen^' a harm- 
less threat. If they mean to say that all these '' publicists" 
deem " emancipation of slaves" in war, an illegal " meas- 
ure," the authorities we have cited show how much such 
assertions are worth. In view of these authorities, the 
following from this Address will be appreciated at its true 
value : " Disregarding the teachings of the approved writers 
on international law, and the practice and claims of his 
oion Government^ in its purer days, Preside;*t Lincoln 
has sought to convert the South into a Sails.,. Domingo, 
by appealing to the cupidity, lusts, ambition, r.nd ferocity 
of the slave." And all this is to occur from " 3 mere hru- 
tum fulmen P"* 

In this Address, the Rebel Congress endeavor to press 
into the service the instance we have previously referred 
to, as an exception, — where our Government say that "the 
emancipation of enemy's slaves is not among the acts of 
legitimate warfare," — and make this exception the rule in 
the case, when, notoriously, it stands against the whole 
course of the Government, as seen in its whole histoiy. 
Mr. Adams admits that he "prepared the dispatches" 
which announced this doctrine, but that it was " against 
his judgment and wishes." The real wonder is, that, with 
the General Government, as Mr. A. H. Stephens says, for 
sixty-four years out of seventy-two, under Southern control, 
there should not have been found more such doctrine 
taught and practised upon. But as " one swallow does 
not make a summer," so one such case does not make a 
rule of law, nor even a precedent. The whole current of 
the testimony of the United States is the other way, in 
actual cases determined • and that of other nations is the 
same; and the whole combined is to this effect : that, by 
the laws of war, as recognized by the practice of the most 



356 PEOVIDEXTIAL DESIGNS IX THE REBELLlOlfl-. 

renowned nations of the present day, it is perfectly legi- 
timate for a nation at war to emancipate an enemy's slaves 
and use them against him ; and that the proper status of 
such slaves, so emancipated, \s> perpetual freedom. 

SUSTAINED BY SOUTHERN MEN. 

To save the Government, this doom of slavery, — not 
only in the rebel but in the loyal States, — is called for by 
Southern men, w^hen the issue is fairly made between the 
destruction of the Government and the destruction of 
slavery; and that man has no claim to loyalty, who can 
hesitate when such an issue is joined. Observe a few de- 
clarations to this effect among a thousand, equally pointed 
and satisfactory. 

Governor Bramlette, of Kentucky, in his " Gait House 
Letter," dated *' Frankfort, Vth November, 1863," says : 

Is it not better, should such issue be forced, that we preserve our 
nationaUty, even with loss of slavery, thau lose both our nationality 
and slave property? It is certain that we, at least, in Kentucky, can 
never hold slave property, when this Government is broken up. 

Plon. Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky, in a speech in the 
House of Representatives, at Washington, in January last, 
said : 

Having witnessed for the last two years or more the operations of 
the armies of the country, and, to some extent, the efifect of ordnance 
and small arms upon the enemy, I feel it to be my duty upon this occa- 
sion to say, that while there is power in these, and while the Govern- 
ment must, through these, execute its laws and vindicate its integrity, 
there remains behind this rehrUion that ivhich gives it strength and ixmer 
which miist he overthrown and destroyed on the other side, while our 
armies and our ordnance move in front. * * * Their forces in arms 
against the Government are maintained and fed by, and their very life- 
blood is drawn from, African slavery in the South. * * * Whenever 
you sap the foundation of this accursed rebellion, and tear from under 



SUSTAINED BY SOUTHERN MEX. 357 

the rebels that which has given them strength and power, yon destroy 
the rebellion, and your artillery is effectual. * * * "When a man 
has evinced a hatred to this Government, when he has voluntarily 
taken up arms against this Government, and when he has brought his 
artillery to play upon its Constitution and its principles and its hberties, 
he can demand of me, as a legiislator for the people of this country, no 
piivileges in horses, cattle, land, or negroes. We will take them, when 
we come to them, by any means we can, and by all means. The 
bulwark which prevented the American people, by its army, from 
moving down to the South and exercising jurisdiction there, — that bul- 
wark supported by four million slaves, — must bt removed; and the evi- 
dence that we have a right to remove it is, that we have a right to crush 
the rebdlion. It is the duty of the Government to do it. The Government 
would have failed in its duty to itself, and to all future generations, if 
it did not, in its power and majesty, sweep away that hidwark of slavery. 
I thought it my duty, under the circumstances in which I am placed, 
coming from the country I come from, representing the loyal people who 
feel as I do, and whose opinions have been expressed time and again to me^ 
as mine to them, to make this statement. ' 

Mr. Lowry, a member of the Kentucky Legislature, 
during the last session, said, in a speech before that body: 

If the protest against them meant on account of slavery, all I have 
to say is, that no man felt more sorry than I, when the first gun was 
fired on Sumter. That was the death-knell of slavery on this continent, 
and I am not going at this late day to bring about any antagonism with 
the Government on account of it. I want to see the Union man who 
will do so. I want to see the Union man who wants to hurl Kentucky 
into the whirlpool of rebellion on account of the thing. I am not will- 
ing to do a single thing to place Kentucky in the same situation as Ten- 
nessee and other Southern States, for the sake of saving slavery, and I 
do not believe that there is a patriotic man in Kentucky that would. 

Hon. E. W. Gantt, of Arkansas, in a speech in Brook- 
lyn, New York, said : 

He defied any man to show him any cause for this war other than 
negro slavery. Negro slavery had deluged the land in blood and draped 
it in mourning, and now, when the Government in its might thrust the 



358 PROVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE EEBELLION. 

institution from it, politicians would stick it back into the heart of the 
Government, that new desolations might spring from it, but they could 
not do it. The people of the South, the Union men there, were determined, 
by the help of God, to purge the body politic of negro slavery, and let tlie 
Government stand. 

Governor Hamilton, in his Address to the people of 

Texas, says: 

If, then, you believe, as I do, that the institution of slavery has 
merited and invited its own destruction, and tliat its doom, pronounced 
by the sovereign power of the nation, is an act of justice, — more than 
human justice, attesting the presence of that Omnipotent Hand, — then 
speak and act as men who deserve freedom for themselves and their 
posterity. The day is near at hand when the name of Abolitionist will 
cease to be a reproach, even in the South, and when children, now daily 
the subjects of attempted insult on account of its application to their 
fathers, will thank God that they were so reviled. 

The position of Dr. Robert J. Breciknridge, of Ken- 
tucky, on the issues before the country, is well known. 
In an elaborate paper published in the Danville Quarterly 
Iteview for December, 1862, in which he dissents from the 
President's Emancipation policy, as foreshadowed in his 
Proclamation of the previous September, he thus speaks 
incidentally upon the simple issue between slavery and the 
Government : 

"We admit, — nay, we assert, — that it is inconsistent with the honor and 
dignity of the nation, that slaves once accepted and used in its military 
service, or given the protection of its flag, should afterwards be returned 
to slavery. * * * y^Q believe that this civil war will probably, in 
a legitimate prosecution of it, greatly weaken the political power of the 
slave States, relatively considered; that it will demoralize the institu- 
tion of slavery to a fearful extent; and that results from it maybe 
reached concerning slavery, in opposite directions, far beyond our ability 
to foresee. And, finally, we do not believe that the existence of slavery 
is so serious an obstacle to our triumph, as to justify any apprehension, 
or any resort to unusual or illegal acts ; while, on the other hand, its total 



SUSTAINED BY SOUTHERN MEN. 359 

destruction, in the due, vigorous, and legal prosecution of the war, ought not 
to hinder us from putting the doctrine and practice of secession fortvtr at 
rest. 

In the Kentucky State, Convention, at Louisville, May 
25, 1864, Dr. Breckinridge is reported as saying: 

I received, the other day, a letter frora my old friend, Reverdy John- 
son, of Baltimore, who has made a speech [in the United States Senate] 
in favor of amending the Constitution. He asked me to write what I 
thought about it, and I will give you the substance of my reply : " Taking 
the posture of the negro question as it is, and the nation as it is, my 
conclusion is, that the Government of the United States is absolutely 
bound, by every consideration of statesmanship and of safety, to do one 
of two things : It is bound to use its whole power, both of war and of 
peace, to put back the negro, as far as possible, into the condition he 
occupied before the war; or it is hound to exterminate the whole institution, 
by all the powers the Constitution gives it, or that can be obtained by an 
amendment of that instrument If I were a pro-slavery man, I would say : 
Put back the negro to his former position. But, as lam an antislavery 
man, I say, Use tile whole power op the GovERNiiENT to extinguish 

THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY, ROOT AND BRANCH. 

Dr. Breckinridge again expressed similar sentiments, 
on taking his seat as President of the National Union 
Convention, which assembled in Baltimore on the 7th 
June, 1864. He is reported as then saying as follows : 

I do not know that I would be willing to go so far as probably the ex- 
cellent chairrnan of the National Committee would. But I cordially agree 
with him in this : I think, considering what has been done about sla- 
very, taking the thing as it now stands, overlooking altogether, either in 
the way of condemnation or in the way of approval, any act that has 
brought us to the point where we are, but believing in my conscience 
and with all my heart, that what has brought us where we are in the 
matter of slavery, is the original sin and folly of treason and secession, 
because you remember that the Chicago Convention itself was under- 
stood to say, and I believe it virtually did explicitly say, that they would 
not touch slavery in the States;— leaving it therefore altogether out of 
the question how we came where we are, on that particular point, we 



360 PKOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IN THE REBELLION. 

are prepared to go farther than the original Republicans were prepared 
to go. We are prepared to demand not only that the whole territory 
of the United States sliaU not be made slave, but that the General Gov- 
ernment of the American people shall do one of two things, — and it 
appears to me that there is uotliing else that can be done, — either to 
use the whole power of the Government, both the war power and the 
peace power, to put slavery as nearly as possible back where it was, — 
for, although that would be a fearful state of society, it is better than 
anarchy ; or else, to use the whole power of the Government, both of war 
and peace, and all the practical power that the people of the United States 
will give, them, to exterminate and extinguish slavery. I have no 
hesitation in saying for myself, that if I were a proslavery man, if I 
believed this institution was an ordinance of God, and was given to 
man, I would unhesitatingly join those who demand tliat the Govern- 
ment should be put back where it was. But I am not a proslavery 
man — I never was ; I unite myself with those who believe that it is 
contrary to the highest interests of all men and of all Government, con- 
trary to the i^pirit of the Christian religion, and incompatible with the 
natural rights of man ; I join myself with those who say. Away with it 
forever: and I fervently pray God that the day may come, when, 
throughout the- whole land, every man may be as free as you are, and 
as capable of enjoying regulated hberty. 

Such are the sentiments of leading men in the Border 
and more Soxithern Slave States. Tliey believe the time 
fully come when that institution which underlies the strife 
now raging throughout this nation, should cease in the 
land forever. This, we doubt not, will be found to be a 
sentiment which will extend, as the war goes on, to 
the entire people, so far as they are truly loyal to their 
country. 

THE SUM OF PROVIDENTIAL INDICATIONS. 

We have now given a bare summary of the reasons 
which lead us to the conclusion, that it is the design of 
God, in His providence, to make use of the rebellion to 
terminate forever the institution of slavery in the United 
States, and thus cause the wrath of man to praise Him. 



THE SUM OF PFvOVIDEXTIAL INDICATIONS. 361 

We have already said that considerable time may elapse 
before the end is reached ; that it may be, not till some 
subsequent Congress shall take that necessary step for an 
amendment of the Constitution, which, when ratified by 
the people, will give the finishing stroke to the work; 
and that then it may require, for a time, a military force 
to make even that measure practically effective. But that 
that end will be reached before we can have permanent 
peace, we believe to be as certain as that God reigns. 

It is said that revolutions never go backwards. The 
truth of the aphorism depends on its application. The 
South apply it to the treasonable work in which they are 
engaged, and faith in the sentiment nerves their courage. 
It IS, however, our own conviction, tliat that revolution will 
be rolled back and entirely fiil. But another revolution 
is in progress among the loyal people. The change in 
their sentiments regarding slavery, in some of the develop- 
ments made since the rebellion began, is remarkable. The 
advance which has been made by the Government respect- 
ing the institution, beginning with what it was at first 
supposed the Government might and might not do with 
it, oHi'ight, in putting down the rebellion; proceeding to 
what seemed to be a necessity, and carrying out its 
intentions by Congressional and Executive acts, and by 
military orders and power ; the sentiments of the people, 
at first of such a character as probably would have pro- 
duced a revolution at the North, if certain steps had been 
taken earlier ; their present approval or acquiescence ; the 
extensive belief that the destruction of slavery is now a 
necessity of our national existence, on a basis of perma- 
nent peace ; the remarkable change in the Border States, 
not only among leading individuals, but among the people, 
as evinced in the voluntary action of these States, looking 
to the speedy removal of Slavery ; the legislation of Con- 



362 PKOVIDENTIAL DESIGNS IX THE KEBELLION. 

gress, bearing upon its termination, to the whole extent 
to which it has direct civil jurisdiction ; these, — every one 
of which has grown out of the rebellion, — are among the 
well-known indications of a revolution in the ideas of the 
Government and people. Considering the mere lapse of 
time, the extent of this change is remarkable ; though, 
under the causes which have impelled it, the change is 
natural. This is one of those revolutions which we believe 
will not go backwards. It is one of those mighty movings 
in the hearts of a great people, in the right direction, 
which will have no rest until its glorious and ultimate 
goal shall be reached. 

How can any believer in God's providence, which extends 
to all things, — in whose hand are the hearts of all people, 
— fail to see in these events the inevitable designs of God? 
How can he fail to read in them the doom of slavery ? 

We had intended to consider other designs of God's 
providence in the rebellion, but the extent of this chapter 
compels us to desist. If slavery is purged from the land, 
the only serious element of our national strife is removed. 
"We can then become a homogeneous and truly xmited 
people. It may take time to remove the alienation and 
bitterness which the war has engendered, but the great 
cause being extinct, we may at length become one in a 
sense otherwise impossible of attainment. Then, by the 
favor of God, we may have before us a career of true 
prosperity; then, our land may indeed be the asylum for 
the oppressed of all lands ; then, as a people, we may be 
prepared to fulfil our mission to the Avorld ! May God 
speed the day — and to Him be the glory ! 



THREE PERIODS OF OPINION HISTORICALLY. 3G3 

CHAPTER X. 

THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

The relation of the Church of God in the United Statt? 
to American slavery as an institution, and the sentiments 
of ecclesiastical bodies and leading divines upon its charac- 
ter, as entertained formerly and at the present time in 
diiferent sections of the country, and the bearing of the 
whole upon the rebellion, are matters of vast moment. 
Some of these things have a connection as cause and 
effect, either directly and immediately or more or less 
remotely, which it may be interesting and instructive to 
trace. 

The subject naturally presents itself under three aspects : 
the sentiments which generally prevailed in the early 
period and during the greater portion of our history, both 
North and South ; their subsequent modification at the 
North, and total revolution in almost the whole of the 
extreme South ; and the general state of the public mind 
at present in both sections, consequent upon the rebellion. 
We do not propose in this chapter to go over the ground 
presented in each of these periods, but it is well to note 
the fact in this place which a full examination would verify, 
that a survey of the whole field properly presents the sub- 
ject under this three-fold aspect. 

three periods of opinion historically. 

The first of these periods, though not separated from the 
second so palpably that its termination can be fixed at a 
precise jioint of time, begins at a very early day or near 
the dawn of our history as a people, and comes down to 



364 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

about the year 1835, during which the antislavery penti- 
ment was generally prevalent. That the common opinion 
of the whole countiy ill the early days of the Republic, 
both before and after the Revolution, and down to a com- 
p:ira'ively recent day, was against the institution on groun<ls 
of policy and principle, is undeniable. Statesmen, divines, 
ecclesiastical bodies, the people at large, both North and 
South, with rare exceptions, regarded slavery as founded in 
wrong, condemned it as an institution, and desired and 
expected, and to some extent labored for, its removal. 
These are propositions so clear and certain, and so well 
known to all men, that it is superfluous to attempt to add 
any thing to make the case plainer. 

It is equally true and well known, illustrating a second 
period of opinion, that a change occurred in the South, 
beginning indeed before, but becoming more marked at 
about the time indicated, and finally developing into the 
sentiment of sanctioning slavery in the highest and fullest 
sense, and on every ground, social, economical, political, 
moral and religious ; and that, during this same period, 
while a small fraction of the Northern people, the " aboli- 
tionists proper,-' as they have been termed, took extreme, 
and, to the South, offensive ground and action, and while 
another portion maintained the original antislavery senti- 
ments which prevailed from the fii-st, still another and a 
very large portion of the Northern i>eoi)le, embracing 
ra;my who were still not frierrdly to slavery, practically 
abandoned the early prevalent sentiments, became intensely 
"conservative," and took such a course of action, illus- 
trated by the writings and speeches of men both in Church 
and State, as gave the modern Southern views a direct 
and intended, or a q^iasi-ipYSLGticDl sanction and encourage- 
ment. These phases of sentiment, and their consequences, 
are susceptible of the clearest proof. 



THREE PERIODS OF OPINION HISTORICALLY. 365 

The third period dates from the l)eginning- of the rebel- 
lion. In the South we see no special change among the 
rebels concerning slavery, except a reiteration of their 
former arguments in its favor more vehemently, and their 
determination, if possible, to make good by the sword 
what they have failed to do by rhetoric. But among loyal 
men at the South, as our arms advance, the most marked 
changes in sentiment appear. They denounce slavery as 
the cause of all their woes, and some of them outstrip 
Abolition itself in heaping upon it their anathemas as a 
Tvicked and monstrous institution, now that they see what 
use has been made of it by demagogues. This is a little 
remarkable for serious men, as in principle it has always 
been just what it now is. But men's vie^vs of moral 
questions are often affected by matters which really have 
nothing to do with their moral status and relations, or 
which concern them only incidentally. And this ethical 
feature of the case is illustrated quite as strikingly at the 
North. The views of the institution which many now 
entertain arise mainly or wholly from what the rebellion 
has developed, while its character as a system is unchanged. 
There have been substantially but two classes among the 
Northern people since the rebellion began. Those who 
in heart were antislavery, but in action conservative, are 
now united with all those who have opposed the system 
. in any form, in two things: agreeing that slavery has 
caused the rebellion and the war; and that its just doom 
is to perish. They regard it an evil in a sense, and put 
themselves in opposition to it in a form, to which they 
have been brought, not by the character of the institution 
itself, but by what it has attempted; and looking at it 
now from a new stand-point, some of this class are frank 
to confess their former position wrong. The other phase 

of sentiment in the loyal States is substantially one with 



866 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

that of the rebels. It is seen in Church and State. There 
IS a class of men in the Church in the loyal Slates who 
take the same ground for slavery as do the rebels, defend- 
ing it as divine, and desiring it to be perpetual. They of 
course, like a certain class of politicians, are arrayed 
against the Government. They are opposed to putting 
down the rebellion by force of arms, or in any other way. 
They are in sympathy with the rebels concerning the 
institution which caused the war, and they are therefore 
against the war and for the perpetuity of slavery. These 
phases of present Northern sentiment, — or rather, senti- 
ment in all the loyal States, — illustrate and confirm the 
declaration of the Hon. Green Clay Smith, of Kentucky, 
in the resolutions offered by him and passed by the 
present House of Representatives, that " there are now 
but two classes in the country — patriots and traitors." 

We have already said that we cannot go over the 
ground covered by these three periods, so as to exhibit in 
full the evidence of these several phases of opinion upon 
slavery. We shall, in this chapter, confine our examina- 
tion to the first two periods, and of these we can take 
but a cursory view, reserving to a subsequent chapter, 
entirely, a notice of modern Southern opinion. Our 
design will lead to a summary sketch of the state of 
opinion from early times to the present day, simply to 
show, in the result, how it illustrates the working out of 
the rebellion. We shall look chiefly at the state of senti- 
ment in the Church, though it will be found that this 
corresponds with that entertained by the people generally. 

THE CHURCH LARGELY RESPOXSIBLE FOR OPINION. 

It is undoubtedly true that the more intelligent classes 
in society — statesmen and others of the highest abilities, 
who are not connected formally with the Church, as well 



THE CHUECH RESPONSIBLE FOR OPINION. 367 

as the mass of her members, — have their opinions formed 
or modified, in a good degree, upon the moral and religious 
aspects of this and many other questions, by the views 
which the Church takes ; by the formal action of its eccle- 
siastical assemblies ; by the writings of its distinguished 
ministers, and by the discussions of the pulpit. This, 
to a great extent, is no doubt true of the general opposi- 
tion felt toward slavery in the early period of our history ; 
to that opposition as moderated or intensified at a later 
period ; and to the total change in sentiment upon the 
character of slavery which occurred among the people of 
the extreme South. It will thus be seen, in so far as this 
agency in forming men s opinions is justly attributable to 
the Church, as illustrated in the views which the American 
peoj^le have entertained concerning slavery, that the re- 
sponsibility of the Church in this regard is overwhelmingly 
great ; and if it shall appear that the Church led the way, 
statesmen but following in her wake, in the change of 
Southern opinion upon the character of slavery (proof 
of which will be given in another chapter), and which 
culminated in the rebellion, it will furnish an additional 
item of the most momentous importance in fixing upon 
those who thus took the initiative, the tremendous 
burden of that tide of blood which is now rollino^ over 
the land. 

We record the facts which bear upon such a result 
with no satisfaction ; rather with mortification and sor- 
row. But if they are a part of the veritable history of 
these "perilous times," if they illustrate a most important 
phase in a great moral movement of the age, directed by 
the providence of God, though it be in violence and car- 
nage, through the agency of his own Church, it may prove 
a valuable lesson to her and to all men, and stand as a 
beacon to warn and to guide in days yet to come. 



368 THE CHUKCll AND SLAVERY. 



PKESBYTEEIA]S^ CHURCH ILLUSTRATIVE OF OTHERS. 

To avoid prolixity, we shall not collate the sentiments 
upon slavery of the several branches of the Church. The 
views published from time to time by the Presbyterian 
Church will probably show the opinions substantially of 
the Churclies of all denominations in the country, — at 
least for the first period, and to a great extent for the 
second, — as explicitly as any other testimony. It was 
formerly among the largest in the United States, and 
extended into all parts of the country. It was divided 
into nearly equal portions in 1838, not upon any geo- 
graphical line, nor upon the subject of slavery. Both 
branches, commonly known, after the separation, as Old 
and New School, were still spread over the whole country, 
and had each its General Assembly, in which the entire 
body of each respectively was represented. 

In 1857, a schism occurred in the New School Church, 
purely upon slavery, by a large portion of the delegates 
from the South voluntarily withdrawing, and the Churches 
they represented subsequently forming a separate organi- 
zation. The New School Church, however, continued to 
embrace Churches in the Border slave States, and its juris- 
diction still extends there. 

The Old School Church maintained its jurisdiction 
intact down to the time of the rebellion. Its highest 
judicatory, assembling annually, might then have been 
composed of commissioners from every State in the Union 
except Vermont and Rhode Island. When the rebellion 
occm-red, the Churches, Presbyteries, and Synods, in the 
seceded States, cut loose from the " General Assembly of 
the United States," and formed a " General Assembly of 
the Confederate States." The former still extends its 
jurisdiction to the Churches formerly in its connection 



EARLY TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 369 

throughouL the • loyal States, while it lias never, by any 
lornial act, renounced its jurisdiction to the Churches of 
the seceded States. 

It is essential that these facts should be borne in mind, 
in order to understand the testimony which this large 
body of Christians has maintained upon the subject under 
consideration. 

FIRST PERIOD. — EARLY TESTIMONY OF THE CHURCH. 

Going back to the year 1774, we find that in the high- 
est judicatory of the Presbyterian Church (then the 
Synod of New York and Philadelphia) " the subject of 
negro slavery came up to be considered," and tliat " much 
reasoning on the matter" occurred, resulting in the 
appointment of a committee to make a report; but no 
further action appears to have been taken at that meeting. 
In 1787, the Synod took their first formal action. A 
committee made a report, in which these words occur : 

It is more especially the duty of those who maintain the rights of 
humanity, and who acknowledge and teach the obligations of Christi- 
anity, to use such means as are in their j^oiver to extend the blessings of 
equal freedom to every part of the human race. From a full conviction 
of these truths, and sensible that the rights of human nature are too 
well understood to admit of debate, Overtiired, That the Synod of New 
York and Philadelphia recommend in the warmest terms, to every 
member of their body, and to all the Churches and families under their 
care, to do every thing in their power, consistent with the rights of 
civil society, to promote the abolition of slavery, and the instruction of 
the negroes, whether bond or free. 

After full consideration, the body "came to the follow- 
ing judgment," which we give in part : 

The Synod of New York and Philadelphia do highly approve of the 
general principles of universal liberty that prevail in America, and the 
interest which many of the States have taken in proinoting the abolition 
of slanenj. * * * They earnestly recoaimend it to all the members 



370 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

belonging to their communion, to give those persons ,who are at present 
held in servitude such good education as to prepare them for the better 
e',ijoymmt of freedom. * * * [They also "recommend that masters" 
V ould give their slaves] a pecuKum^ or grant them sufficient time 
and sufficient means of procuring their oion liberty at a moderate rate, 
that thereby they may be brought into society with those habits 
of industry that may render them useful citizens ; and, finally, they 
recommend it to all their people to use the most prudent measures, 
consistent with the interest and the state of civil society, in the 
counties where they live, to 2'>'>~ocure eventually the final abolition of slavery 
in America.. 

lu 1793, "this decision was republished" as tlie act 
and judgment of the General Assembly — that body having 
been formed in 1787. 

POLITICS AND RELIGION. A PROPHET. 

The Constitution of the United States was submitted 
to the people of the several States for ratification in 1787. 
Its relations to slavery were canvassed by the people of 
all classes, as they had been in the National and were in 
the respective State conventions. We give a single tes- 
timony, among many, showing the views of prominent 
divines. 

Rev. Dr. Hopkins, of Newport, Rhode Island, wrote to 
Rev. Dr. Hart, of Preston, Connecticut, on the subject, 
under date of January 29, 1788, as follows : 

The new Constitution, you observe, guarantees this trade (the slave- 
trade) for twenty years. I fear, if it be adopted, this will prove an 
Achan in our camp. How does it appear in the sight of Heaven and 
of all good men, well informed, that these States, who have been fight- 
ing for liberty, and consider themselves as the highest and most noble 
example of zeal for it, cannot agree in any political Constitution, unless 
it indulge and authorize them to enslave their fellow-men I I think if 
this Constitution be not adopted as it is, without any alteration, we 
shall have none, and shall be in a state of anarchy, and probably of 
civil war. Therefore, I wish to have it adopted ; but still, as I said, 
I fear. And perhaps civil war will not be avoided, if it be adopted. 



ACTIOIS' UPOX A CASE SUBMITTED. 371 

Verily, among the " giants in the earth in those days," 
there were some prophets. Dr. Hopkins, like a true seer, 
" smelleth the battle afar off." But he prophesied farther. 
The historian cannot more truly depict the scenes which 
these latter days have witnessed in Congress, than they 
are graphically drawn by that sagacious divine of nearly 
a hundred years ago : 

Ah ! these unclean spirits, like frogs, — they, like the Furies of the 
poets, are spreading discord, and exciting men to contention and war, 
wherever they go ; and they can spoil the best Constitution that can 
be formed. When Congress shall be formed on the new plan, these 
frogs win be there ; for they go forth to the kings of the earth, in the 
first place. They will turn the members of that august body into 
devils, so far as they are permitted to influence them. 

He seems to have foreseen also, or at least feared, what 
would come upon the Church as well as upon the State; 
though here, the reality has far exceeded, in these "last 
times," the apprehensions expressed : " I suppose that 
even good Christians are not out of the reach of iufluence 
from these frogs. ' Blessed is he that watcheth and keep- 
eth his garments.' " 

This is the same Dr. Hopkins, who, in conjunction with 
Rev. Dr. Stiles, made " a representation," in 1774, to the 
Synod of Xew York and Philadelphia, which led to the 
" first notice of the subject, the slavery question," taken 
by the Presbyterian Church in the United States in her 
highest court. The Minutes say: "The representation 
and request relative to sending negro missionaries to 
Africa, was taken into consideration, in consequence of 
which the subject of negro slavery came to be con- 
sidered." 

ACTIOX UPON A CASE SUBMITTED. 

In 1795, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church took further action upon an overture from the 
17 



372 THE CHUBCH AND SLAVEKY. 

Presbytery of Transylvania, in Kentucky. The case was 
that of " a serious and conscientious person," who viewed 
" the slavery of the negroes as a moral evil, highly offensive 
to God, and injurious to the interests of the Gospel," and 
who lived among those " who concurred with him in sen- 
timent upon general principles, yet for particular reasons 
held slaves, and tolerated the practice in others ;" and he 
wished to know whether he should " hold Christian com- 
munion with the latter." 

The Assembly exhorted the man, and others similarly 
situated, to " live in charity and peace according to the 
doctrine and practice of the Apostles," and adds : " At 
the same time, the General Assembly assure all the 
Churches under theu' care, that they view with the deepest 
concern aoiy vestiges of slavery vjMch may exist in our 
country, and refer the Churches to the records of the 
General Assembly, published at different times," as given 
above. 

The Assembly also address " a letter to the Presbytery 
on the subject of the above overture," in which they 
exhort to peace, and say that " the commissioners from 
the Presbytery of Transylvania are furnished with attested 
copies" of the Assembly's " decisions, to be read by the 
Presbytery when it shall appear to them proper ;" and 
also, that " the General Assembly have taken every step 
which they deemed expedient or wise, to encourage eman- 
cipation^ and to render the state of those who are in 
slavery as mild and tolerable as possible." 

ANOTHER CASE ACTED UPON. 

In 1815, the Assembly adopted another paper, founded 
upon " the petition of some elders who entertained conscien- 
tious scruples on the subject of holding slaves," and upon 
another petition from " the Synod of Ohio concerning the 



THE MOST ELABORATE TESTIMONY. 373 

buying and selling of slaves." The paper of the Assembly- 
contains these sentences : 

The General Assembly have repeatedly declared their cordial appro- 
bation of those principles of ci\dl liberty which appear to be recognized 
by the Federal and State Governments in these United States. They 
have expressed their regret that the slavery of the Africans, and of 
their descendants, still continues in so many places, and even among 
those within the pale of the Church, and have urged the Presbyteries 
under their care to adopt such measures as will secure at least to the 
rising generation of slaves, within the bounds of the Church, a religious 
education, that they may he prepared for the exercise and enjoyment of 
liberty^ when God in His providence may open a door for their eman- 
cipation. 

The Assembly then refer the petitioners to the previous 
action in 1787, 1793, and 1795. 

THE MOST ELABORATE TESTIMOITT. 1818. 

The paper adopted by the General Assembly of 1818 is 
more frequently referred to and perhaps more generally 
known than any other, as containing a more full and 
pointed condemnation of the system than had been pre- 
viously enacted. It was introduced by the presentation 
of the following resolution: '^ Resolved, That a person 
who shall sell as a slave, a member of the Church, who 
shall be at the time in good standing in the Church and 
unwilling to be sold, acts inconsistently with the spirit of 
Christianity, and ought to be debarred from the commu- 
nion of the Church." The record then proceeds : " After 
considerable discussion, the subject was committed to Dr. 
Green, Dr. Baxter, and Mr. Burgess, to prepare a report 
to be adopted by the Assembly, embracing the object of 
the above resolution, and also expressing the opinion of 
the Assembly in general as to slavery." This committee 
made a report which the record says " was imanimously 
adopted." The report is a long document, and although 



374 THE CHUKCH AND SLAVEKY. 

well known, we here give several paragraphs, to show the 
views of the Assembly upon the character of slavery as a 
system. The report begins as follows : 

We consider the voluntary enslaving of one portion of the human 
race by another as a gross violation of the most precious and sacred right 
of human nature ; and as utterly inconsistent with the laiu of God, which 
requires us to love our neighbor as ourselves, and as totally irreconcilable 
with the spirit and principles of the Gospel of Christ, which enjoin that 
" all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them." Slavery creates a paradox in the m,oral system; it 
exhibits rational, accountable, and immortal beings in such circum- 
stances as scarcely to leave them the power of moral action. It exhib- 
its them as dependent on the will of others, whether they shall receive 
religious instruction ; whether they shall know and worship the true 
God : whether they shall enjoy the ordinances of the Gospel ; whether 
they shall perform the duties and cherish the endearments of husbands 
and wives, parents and children, neighbors and friends ; whether they 
shall preserve their chastity and purity, or regard the^dictates of justice 
and humanity. Such are some of the consequences of slavery — con- 
sequences not imaginary, but which connect themselves with its very exist- 
ence. The evils to which the slave is always exposed, often take place 
in fact, and in their very worst degree and form ; and where all of them 
do not take place, as we rejoice to say in many instances, through the 
mfluence of the principles of humanity and religion on the mind of 
masters, they do not, — still the slave is deprived of his natural right, 
degraded as a human being, and exposed to the danger of passing into 
the hands of a master who may inflict upon him all the hardships and 
injuries which inhumanity and avarice may suggest. 

From this view of the consequences resulting from the practice into 
which Christian people have most inconsistently fallen, of enslaving a portion 
of their brethren of mankind, — for " God hath made of one blood all 
nations of men to dwell on the face of the earth," — it is manifestly the 
duty of all Christians who enjoy the light of the present day, when the 
inconsistency of slavery, both with the dictates of humanity and religion, has 
been demonstrated, and is generally seen and acknowledged, to use their 
honest, earnest, and unwearied endeavors, to correct the errors of former 
times, and as speedily as possible to efface this blot on our holy religion, and 
to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout Christendom, and if 
iwssible throughout the world. 



THE MOST ELABORATE TESTIMOIS^. 375 

We rejoice that the Church to which we belong commenced as early as 
any other in this country, the good work of endeavoring to put an end to 
slavery, and that in the same work many of its members have ever since 
been, and now are, among the most active, vigorous, and efficient laborers. 
"We do, indeed, tenderly sympathize with those portions of our Church 
and of our country where the evil of slavery has been entailed upon 
them ; where a great and the most vv'ticous part of the community ^ abhor 
slavery, and wish its extermination as sincerely as any others — ^but where 
the number of slaves, their ignorance, and their vicious habits generally, 
render an immediate and universal emancipation inconsistent alike with 
the safety and happiness of the master and the slave. "With those who are 
thus circumstanced, we repeat that we tenderly sympathize. At the same 
time we earnestly exhort them to continue, and if possible to increase their 
exertions to effect a total abolition of slavery. "We exhort them to suffer no 
greater delay to take place in this most interesting concern, than a 
regard to the pubhc welfare truly and indispensably demands. 

As our country has inflicted a most grievous injury upon the unhappy 
Africans, by bringing them into slavery, we cannot indeed urge that we 
should add a second injury to the first, by emancipating them in such 
manner as that they will be likely to destroy themselves or others. But 
we do think that our country ought to be governed in this matter by 
no other consideration than an honest and impartial regard to the happi- 
ness of the injured party, uninfluenced by the expense or inconvenience lohich 
such a regard may involve. "We, therefore, warn all who belong to our 
denomination of Christians, against unduly extending this plea of necessity; 
against making it a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or a pre- 
tence for not using efforts that are lawful and practicable to extinguish 
this evU. And we, at the same time, exhort others to forbear harsh cen- 
sures, and imcharitable reflections on their brethren, who unhappily 
live among slaves whom they cannot immediately set free ; but who, at 
the same time, are really using all their influence, and all their endeavors, 
to bring them into a state of freedom, as soon as a door for it can be safely 
opened. Having thus expressed our views of slavery, and of the duty 
indispensably incumbent on all Christians to labor for its complete extinc- 
tion, we proceed to recommend, and we do it with aU the earnestness 
and solemnity which this momentous subject demands, a particular 
attention to the following points. 

The foregomg embraces the chief portion of the report. 
Thus, the most eminent men of the Presbyterian Church, 



37G THE CHUECH AND SLAVERY. 

in her highest court, including many of the most renowned 
of that day from the South, who lived in the midst of 
slavery, and knew whereof they affirmed, speak of slavery 
as a system, of what it was before their eyes : regarding 
it as opposed both to humanity and religion, to the " law" 
and " gospel" of God ; the wrong of which, to their view, 
was "demonstrated," and was "generally seen and ac- 
knowledged ;" the " inconsistency" of which, as a " prac- 
tice," among Christians, was manifest ; and, therefore, as 
involving the inevitably resulting duty, to seek its " extinc- 
tion" and " extermination," just " as speedily as possible." 
The recommendations above referred to are : First, that 
the American Colonization Society (for colonizing free 
blacks in Africa) be encouraged, and they " exceedingly 
rejoice to have witnessed its origin and organization among 
the holders of slaves, as giving an unequivocal pledge of 
their desire to deliver themselves and their country from 
the calamity of slavery." Secondly, they recommend 
to all " to facilitate and encourage the instruction of their 
slaves in the principles and duties of the Christian religion." 
Thirdly, they " enjoin it on all Church Sessions and Pres- 
byteries, under the care of this Assembly, to discounte- 
nance, and as far as possible to prevent, all cruelty of 
whatever kind in the treatment of slaves, especially the 
cruelty of separating husband and wife, parents and chil- 
dren," etc.* 

* The authorsbip of this celebrated report on slavery, of 1818, has been controverted, 
some attributing it to Dr. Baxter, and some to Dr. Green. The point is easily settled, 
first, from the testimony of Dr. Green, the Chairman of the Committee ; second, 
from the testimony of Mr. Burgess, the only member of the Committee still living ; 
third, by Dr. J. D. Paxton, a member of that Assembly; all of whom agree. Dr. 
Green, in his autobiography, makes the following statement on the point: "I was a 
commissioner this year (ISIS) to the General Assembly." " Among other things, 
I penned the minute on the subject of slavery, which is yet referred to by those who 
are hostile to African slavery." In a recent letter from Mr. Burgess to the 
■writer, is found some interesting items in the history of this paper. Though the 



CHAEACTEEISTICS OP THE PAPER OP 1818. 377 



CHARACTERISTICS OP THE PAPER OF 1818. 

Some things regarding the foregoing document should 
here be noted, which strikingly illustrate the sentiments of 
the Church and of the country, at that period, upon tb 
institution of slavery as a system. 

1. It will be difficult to find in the English language a 
more direct and decided condemnation of the system than 
is here given. Even the most ultra abolitionists have 
never expressed themselves more emphatically. They 
have used harsher language, and they have had no such 
bowels of compassion as the Assembly felt, in view of the 
practical difficulties which beset the whole subject in any 
attempt to rid the country of the institution ; but upon the 
simple matter of disapprobation of the system, and of the 
duty of endeavoring " to obtain the complete abolition of 
slavery throughout Christendom, and if possible through- 
out the world," the General Assembly here go as far as 
the farthest. 

2. This paper was adopted unanimously. The Church 
was well represented from the South, and there were pres- 

letter is a private one, he takes the liberty of quoting from it. Mr. Burgess, 
it will be seen, introduced the subject to the notice of the Assembly, and thus 
"occasioned" its action. He says : " I was a member of what was then the Presby- 
tery of Miami, when I presented the paper against slavery. The Committee which 
reported the paper, commonly called the paper of 1818, were Dr. Green, Dr. Baxter, 
and myself. Drs. Green and Baxter made out the report before consulting me on 
the subject; so that I am not responsible for the report :;t all, except that I occa- 
sioned it." He further says ; " I was sent to the General Assembly, where I pre- 
sented my paper, having first consulted Dr. Joshua L. Wilson, of Cincinnati, also 
Dr. Robert G. Wils<.n, of Chillicothe, Dr. Hoge, of Columbus, and Dr. Mathew Brown, 
then President of Washington College, Penn. When I laid in my paper before the 
Committee of Bills and Overtures, it was not reported. Then I took an appeal, 
agreeably to the advice of President Brown, and Rev. John Thompson, and others. 
My appeal was sustained, and thus the paper was brought before the Assembly. Dr. 
Green moved that the subject be given to a Committee of three ministers." Dr. 
Paxton, who was a member of the Assembly of 181S, and also of the Assembly of 
1864. bears the same testimony, in a letter we have seen, to the authorship of the 
paper, ascribing it to Dr. Green. 



378 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

ent in the Assembly tlie following distinguished persons, 
among the clergy ; Drs. Ooe, Romeyn, Green, Janeway, 
Ely, Chester, and Jennings, from the North, and Drs. 
Edgar, Witberspoon, and Lelaod, from the South, all of 
whom have at some time been Moderators of the Assem- 
bly; and also from the North, Drs. Fitch, Lansing, 
McClelland, Geo. C. Potts, Cathcart, Matthew Brown, 
Diiffield, and Messrs. Burges, and Dickey, and from the 
South, Drs. Paxton, Baxter, Speece, Morrison, Mclver, 
Nathan H. Hall, and Mr. James K. Burch, besides many 
others from both sections, of no doubt equal ability. 

3. While this paper expressed the solemn judgment of 
the Church in all parts of the land, it also expressed the 
opinions substantially which were entertained by the most 
distinguished statesmen of every portion of the country, 
and by the people generally. This is too well known to 
be questioned. 

4. It is no doubt true, also, that this is a fair representa- 
tion of the views of all other denominations of Christians. 
It would be quite remarkable that so large and influential 
a body as the Presbyterian Church, extending at that time 
into nearly every State and Territory of the Union, should 
express, through its highest court, a unanimous judgment 
in terms of such pointed condemnation of slavery, and at 
the same time not exhibit in such action the general senti- 
ment of other denominations. 

SECOND PERIOD. MORE " CONSERVATIVE" VIEWS. 

We come now to the second period in the history of 
opinions on the subject of slavery. We find them first 
officially brought to view, so far as the action of the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church is con- 
cerned, in the year 1836. The reader will have noticed 
a" complete uniformity in sentiment from 1787 to 1818, 



MOEE "CONSERVATIVE" VIEWS. 379 

embodying disapprobation of the system in each of the 
several instances in which a judgment was exprei^sed, the 
main difference being in the more extended expression of 
views in the paper adopted 1818. The Church appears to 
have been satisfied with tliis judgment for many years, for 
we find no further action of any kind upon the subject till 
the year 1836 ; so that, in round numbers, we may say that 
such had been its views for a period of fifty years ; though, 
undoubtedly, the transition had been in operation for some 
time. 

The modification of these opinions in the Church at the 
North, which we have said presents a characteristic of the 
second period, is in an opposite direction to that commonly 
supposed. 

No statement has been more frequently made since the 
beginning of the rebellion than this : that the Northern 
Church has plunged the country into this civil war ; that 
" political preachers have aboHtionized the Church and the 
people ;" that, during the last thirty years, the Northern 
mind had, under their tutelage chiefly, been educated up 
to a point of unbearable hostility to slavery ; that this has 
been the course of action in the judgments expressed by 
leading ecclesiastical bodies; so that the South were 
actually pushed into their present attitude in pure self- 
defence; and that, to defend themselves against modern 
opinions, led to the disruption of ecclesiastical bodies, and 
finally to secession and war. These charges have formed 
the staple of a certain style of oratory upon the stump and 
in Congress, both from the North and the South, and the 
substance of many editorials in a certain class of public 
journals. 

Now it so happens that the l^icts are the precise reverse 
of this, so far as the action of many of the large b 'dies of 
Christians and the opinions of many of the leading men in 
17* 



380 THE CHURCH AND SLAYEEY. 

every branch of the Northern Church are concerned. 
Whether it be a matter for rejoicing or moarning, the fact 
is imdeniable, — as shown by official documents of religious 
bodies, and by the formal utterances of leading divines, — 
that during this very period of the last thirty years previous 
to the rebellion, instead of the Church and these influential 
classes of the people becoming, as charged, " more and 
more abolitionized," there was a very marked abatement 
in their opinions and in their course of action in opposition 
to slavery, — judged from the stand-point of 1818, — and a 
disposition frequently manifested to concede to the South, 
in both sentiment and action, that which placed the 
Church, in the judgment of Southern divines, in decided 
antagonism to the whole current of its former testimonies. 

ACTION POSTPONED. — 1836. 

The proof is indisputable. The first example we take 
from the action of the Presbyterian Church. Its testimony 
of 1818 had become practically a dead letter. "The sub- 
ject being pressed on its attention by various memorials," 
the General Assembly, in 1836, adopted this minute: 

Inasmuch as the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church, in its pre- 
liminary and fundamental principles, declares that no Church judicatory 
ought to pretend to make laws, to bind the conscience, in virtue of their 
own authority ; and as the urgency of the business of the Assembly, 
and the shortness of the time during which they can continue in session, 
render it impossible to deliberate and decide judiciously on the subject 
of slavery in its relations to the Church ; therefore, Resolved^ That this 
whole subject be indefinitely postponed. 

What a marked contrast appears between this action 
and that of former years ; and wherefore ? The "funda- 
mental principles" of the Presbyterian Church were the 
same as formerly. The Assembly had just as much 
" authority to make laws" and " to bind the conscience" 



ACTION POSTPONED. — 1836. 381 

as thcj ever had, and the institution on which they were 
cahed to speiik was the same in character ; at least it had 
not improved^ though it, had extended its borders and was 
becoming a mighty power in the land. It is no doubt true 
that " the urgency of the business" was great. It was 
just then that the disputes between the Old and New 
School were culminating. But the length of " time during 
which" they could '*■ continue in session" was within their 
own keeping. 

There is something very significant in the statement that 
It was " impossible to deliberate and decide judiciously 
on the subject of slavery in its relations to the Church." 
What was there which demanded special circumspection 
just then, lest they should pronounce unadvisedly ? Were 
not their previous testimonies most explicit? If they 
deemed them rights how much " time" would it have taken 
simply to refer the memorialists to them as still their sen- 
timents, as representatives of the Church, as had been done 
several times before ? This would have required fewer 
words than were employed to justify indefinite postpone- 
ment. If their previous action was wrong^ it should have 
been revoked, however much time might have been 
required, for it touched and decided a most radical ques- 
tion in morals and religion. Granting what was of course 
true, that the Assembly had no authority " to make laws," 
they could certainly declare the laic of God on the subject, 
and this was all that was requisite. 

The truth is, that the views of the whole subject enter- 
tained by many in the Assembly representing the South- 
ern section of the Church had undergone a change. Some 
were in a transition state, and some had totally reversed 
their opinions; so that, at this time, the doctrines of 1818 
began to be odious to Southern men. They were not 
ready to make open war upon those doctrines in the 



382 THE CHUECH AND SLAVERY. 

Assembly, as they were beginning to do through tlie 
Southern press, but it would have been hazardous to 
attempt at that time a reaffirmation of them. 

FOEMAX "conservative" ACTION OF 1845. 

The next formal declaration of sentiment made by the 
General Assembly was in 1845.* Seven years before this 

* The committee to whom were referred the memorials on the sab.>ect of shivery, 
beg leave to submit the following report: 

(a) The memorialists may be divided into three classes, viz.: 1. Those which 
represent the system of slavery, as it exists in these United States, as a great evil, 
and pray this General Assembly to adopt measures for the amelioration of the con- 
dition of the slaves. 2. Those which ask the Assembly to receive memorials on the 
subject of slavery, to allow a full discussion of it, and to enjoin upon the members 
of our Church, residing in States whose laws forbid the slaves being taught to read, 
to seek by all lawful means the repeal of those laws. 3. Those which represent • 
slavery as amoral evil, a heinous sin in the sight of God, calculated to bring upon 
the Church the curse of God, and calling for the exercise of discipline in the case of 
those who persist in maintaining or justifying the relation of master to plaves. 

(&) The question which is now unhappily agitating and dividing other branches 
of the Church, and which is pressed upon the attention of the Assembly by one of 
the three classes of memorialists just named, is, whether the holding of slaves is, 
under all circumstances, a heinous sin, calling for the discipline of the Church. 

(c) The Church of Christ is a spiritual body, whose jurisdiction extends to the 
religious faith and moral conduct of her members. She cannot legislate where 
Christ has not legislated, nor make terms of membership which he has not made. 
The question, therefore, which this Assembly is called to decide, is this: Do the 
Scriptures teach that the holding of slaves, without regard to circumstances, is a sin, 
the renunciation of which should be made a condition of membership in the Church 
of Christ ? 

{d) It is impossible to answer this question in the affirmative, without contra- 
dicting some of the plainest declarations of the word of God. That slavery existed 
in the days of Christ and His Apostles is an admitted fact. That they did not 
denounce the relation itself as sinful, as inconsistent with Christianity; that slave- 
holders were admitted to membership in the Churches organized by the Apostles; 
that whilst they were required to treat their slaves with kindness, and as rational, 
accountable, immortal beings, and, if Christians, as brethren in the Lord, they were 
not commanded to emancipate them; that slaves were required to be "obedient to 
their masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, with singleness of 
heart as unto Christ," are facts which meet the eye of every reader of the New Tes- 
tament. This Assembly cannot, therefore, denounce the holding of slaves as neces- 
sarily a heinous and scandalous sin, calculated to bring upon the Church the curse 
of God, without charging the Apostles of Christ with conniving at sin, introducing 
into the Church such sinners, and thus bringing upon them the curse of the 
Almighty. 

{e) In so saying, however, the Assembly are not to be understood as denying that 



FOEMAL "conservative" ACTION OF 1845. 383 

the division into New and Old. School had occurred, and 
therefore the action of which we now speak was that of 
the latter body only. Both still extended into the 
Southern States, though the Old School had much the 

there is evil connected with slavery. Much less do they approve those defective 
and oppressive laws by which, in some of the States, it is regulated. Nor would 
they by any means countenance the traffic in slaves for the sake of gain ; the separa- 
tion of husbands and wives, parents and children, for the sake of "filthy lucre," or 
fjr the convenience of the master; or cruel treatment of slaves, in any respect. 
Every Christian and philanthropist certainly should seek, by all peaceable and law- 
ful means, the repeal of unjust and oppressive laws, and the amendment of such as 
are defective, so as to protect the slaves from cruel treatment by wicked men, and 
secure to them the right to receive religious instruction. 

(/) Nor is the Assembly to be understood as countenancing the idea that masters 
may r&gard their servants as mere property, and not as human beings, rational, 
accountable, immortal. The Scriptures prescribe not only the duties of servants, 
but of masters also, warning the latter to discharge those duties, "knowing that 
their Master is in heaven, neither is there respect of persons with Him." 

(g) The Assembly intend simply to say, that since Christ and His inspired Apos- 
tles did not make the holding of slaves a bar to communion, we, as a court of Christ, 
h-a\i3 no authority to do so ; since they did not attempt to remove it from the 
(yhurch by legislation, we have no authority to legislate on the subject. We fe-el 
constrained further to say, that however desirable it may be to ameliorate the con- 
dition of the slaves in the Southern and Western States, or to remove slavery from 
our country, these objects, we are fully persuaded, can never be secured by ecclesi- 
astical legislation. Much less can they be attained by those indiscriminate denun- 
ciations against slaveholders, without regard to their character or circumstances, 
which have to so great an extent characterized the movements of modern abolition- 
ists, which, so far from removing the evils complained of, tend only to perpetuate 
and aggravate them. The Apostles of Christ sought to ameliorate the condition of 
slaves, not by denouncing and excommunicating their masters, birt by teaching both 
masters and slaves the glorious doctrines of the Gospel, and enjoining upon each 
the discharge of their relative duties. Thus only can the Church of Christ, as such, 
now improve the condition of the slaves in our country. 

(A) As to the extent of the evils involved in slavery, and the best methods of 
removing them, various opinions prevail, and neither the Scriptures nor our Consti- 
tution authorize this body to prescribe any particular course to be pursued by the 
Churches under our care. The Assembly cannot but rejoice, however, to learn that 
the Ministers and Churches in the slaveholding States are awaking to a deeper 
sense of their obligation to extend to the slave population generally the means of 
grace, and many slaveholders not professedly religious favor this object. We 
earnestly exhort them to abound more and more in this good work. We would 
exhort every believing master to remember that his Master is also in heaven, and, 
in view of all the circumstances in which he is placed, to act in the spirit of tne 
golden rule : " Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even the same 
to them." 



384 THE CHURCH AND SLAYERT. 

larger membership there, and its Churches were located 
in every part of tlie South. 

As our purpose here is chiefly historical, and as we aim 
merely to show a change iu sentiment in the Church, we 
need not stop to discuss the merits of this or any other 
paper which the Assenil)ly has from time to time adopted. 
This paper shows, however, marked concessions to the 
extremists of the South, as compared with the Assembly's 
earlier action, and has uniformly been so interpreted by 
Southern members.* 

In view of the above stated principles and facts, 

Resolved^ 1. That the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the 
United States was originally organized, and has since continued the bond of union 
in the Church, upon the conceded principle that the existence of domestic slavery, 
under the circumstances in which it is found in the Southern portion of the country, 
is no bar to Christian communion. 

2. That the petitions that ask the Assembly to make the holding of slaves in itself 
a matter of discipline, do virtually require this judicatory to dissolve itself, and 
abandon the organization under which, by the Divine blessing, it has so long pros- 
pered. The tendency is evidently to separate the Northern from the Southern por- 
tion of the Church ; a result which every good citizen must deplore, as tending to 
the dissolution of the Union of our beloved country, and which every enlightened 
Christian will oppose, as bringing about a ruinous and unnecessary schism between 
brethren who maintain a common faith. 

The yeas and nays being ordered, were recorded. [Yeas, 168 ; nays, 13 ; excused, 4.] 

* Referring directly to the Act of 1845, the " General Assembly of the Confederate 
States," in their " Address to all the Churches throughout the Earth," written by 
Dr. Thorn well, and "adopted unanimously by the Assembly," say: "The Presby- 
terian Church in the United States has been enabled, by divine grace, to pursue, 
for the most part, an eminently conservative, because a thoroughly Scriptural, 
policy in relation to this delicate question. It has planted itself upon the word of 
God, and utterly refused to make slaveholding a sin, or non-slaveholding a term of 
communion." This explicit reference to the Act of 1845 was made at Augusta, 
Georgia, December, 1861. To show how the Act of 1818 is regarded at the South, — 
an Act excepted from the above commendation by the words, " for the most part," — 
we refer to the Southern Presbijierian Review, April, 1861, which says: "It was 
during this period that the various religious bodies made their deliverances on the 
subject of slavery, and among them the General Assembly of the Pi-esbyterian 
Church adopted, in 1818, a series of resolutions looking veiy earnestly toward the 
gradual emancipation of the slaves. These resolutions were drawn up by Southern 
men, who were themselves slaveholders, and they were passed by the votes of 
Southern ministers and elders. With reference to other denominations, a rigid 
adherence to the modes of thought and feeling of those days has led to the disrup- 
tion of the Churches; while the Old School Presbyterian Church, commonly 



CONTEAST.— ACTIOIJ" OF 1818 AND 1845. 360 

This characteristic of the paper may be seen at a glance. 
The strongest exp sessions which it contains against slavery 
as a system are these : 

In saying so, however, the Assembly are not tu be understood as 
denying that there is evil connected with slavery. Much less do they 
approve those defective and oppressive laws by which, in some of the 
States, it is regulated. ISTor would they by any means countenance 
the traffic in slaves for the sake of gain ; the separation of husbands 
and wives, parents and children, for the sake of " filthy lucre," or for 
the convenience of the master; or cruel treatment of slaves, in any 
respect. * * * :^ot is the Assembly to be understood as counte- 
nancing the idea that masters may regard their servants as mfere prop- 
erty, and not as human beings, rational, accountable, immortal. * * * 
As to the extent of the evils involved in slavery, and the best methods 
of removing them, various opinions prevail, and neither the Scriptures 
nor our Constitution authorize this body to prescribe any particular 
course to be pursued by the Churches under our care. 

CONTRAST. — ACTION OF 1818 AND 1845. 

The reader need only compare these tender sentences 
^vith the great burden of condemnation in the paper of 
1818, to see that here is a most noticeable ijiodification 
from that expressed twenty-seven years before. The two 
j);ipers are very nearly of the same length, and present the 
following striking points of contrast : 

1 . In the paper of 1818, the Assembly speak in positives. 
They deal with the system, and pronounce it "utterly 
inconsistent with the law of God," and as " totally irrecon- 
cilable with the spirit and principles of the Gospel of 
Christ ;" and say, " Slavery creates a paradox in the 
moral system," and that " the slave is deprived of his 
natural right, degraded as a human being," etc. These 

legarded as so tenacious of the past, and even reproached as a fossil Church, and 
her doctrines derided as fossil Christianity, has had the wisdom given her to under- 
stand t/i6 progress of events, and to keep fully cibreant of the age. The action of 
ISIS still stands upon her records, not as the lau\ but the history of the subject ; 
and Southern Presbyterians are well content that it should so stand " 



d«t) THE CHUECH AND SLAVERY. 

positives condemn the thing hi its esserice^ and assert a 
radical deprivation in the concrete as attaching to *' the 
slave" in person, and that too in every case, as shown by 
the exceptions referred to. In the paper of 1845, in 
speaking of the system, the Assembly deal in negatives; 
and so far as they find any thing to disapprove, it is not 
at all in the thing^ but wholly in what they deem its mere 
adjuncts. The farthest they can go is to wish " not to be 
understood as denying that there is evil connected icith 
slavery." They utter no direct condemnation of the " op- 
pressive laws" of slavery, but are content with saying, 
"much less do they approve" of them. They do not 
positively condemn even " the traffic in slaves for the sake 
of gain," — which always has been the life, soul, and power 
of the whole system, — nor even "the separation of hus- 
bands and wives, parents and children, for the sake of 
'filthy lucre,' or for the convenience of the master; or 
cruel treatment of slaves, in any respect;" but the utmost 
they feel called upon. to say about these crying evils is, 
" '/^or icould they by any means countenance them !" The 
whole style of dealing with the institution shows that 
they were bent on giving " a soft answer" to the memo- 
rialists, as it " turneth away the wrath" of Southern ex- 
tremists. 

2. The paper of 1818 styles "enslaving a portion of 
their brethren of mankind" as a '''•practice into which 
Christian people have most inconsistently fcdlen^^ and 
declares that " the inconsistency of slavery both with the 
dictates of humanity and religion has been demonstrated, 
and is generally seen and acknowledged." The paper of 
1845 admits the consistency of this "practice" with 
Christian cliaracter, asserting that the denial of this posi- 
tion is against "some of the plainest declarations of the 
word of God." 



CONTEAST. — ACTION OF 1818 AND 1845. 387 

3. The Assembly of 1818, starting from their position 
last noticed, declare that "it is manifestly the duty of all 
Christians who enjoy the light of the present day," " to 
use their honest, earnest, and unwearied endeavors, * * * 
to obtain the complete abolition of slavery throughout 
Christendom, and if possible throughout the world." The 
Assembly of 1845, starting from their own position, arrive 
as naturally at an opposite conclusion. They have 7iot 
even a single " soft'^ loord for erniancipatioii^ but some 
that are not so soft against "the movements of modern 
abolitionists," charging them with "indiscriminate denun- 
ciations." 

4. The Assembly of 1818 believed that the Church 
could do much towards ridding the country and the whole 
world of slavery; hence they urge action to this end 
upon their members. They moreover "rejoice that the 
Church" they represented "commenced as early as any 
other in this country the good work of endeavoring to 
put an end to slavery, and that in the same work many 
of its members have ever since been, and now are, among 
the most active, vigorous, and efficient laborers ;" and they 
" earnestly exhort" their members in the South " to con- 
tinue, and, if possible, to increase their exertions to effect 
a total abolition of slavery." The whole drift of the 
paper of 1845 is to nEord palliatives to the system, to make 
those concerned in it contented with their lot, and not 
the remotest wish is directly and positively expressed that 
the Church or the country may ever be rid of it, but 
rather the efforts of the Church to remove it are positively 
discouraged. This will be seen from the only sentence 
in which emancipation is in any manner alluded to : " We 
feel constrained further to say, that however desirable it 
may be to ameliorate the condition of the slaves in the 
Southern and Western States, or to remove slavery from 



388 THE CHUECH AND SLAVERY. 

the country, these objects, we are fully persuaded, can 
never be secured by ecclesiastical legislation." 

We have already said that our object here does not 
lead us to examine the merits of these papers, to deter- 
mine which is more consonant with the word of God. 
We aim in this comparison simply to show their contra- 
riety, and to present it as one of the items of evidence to 
prove that the Church had greatly abated in its opposi- 
tion to slavery, during the very period with which she is 
charged with having provoked the South by her abolition 
sentiments. A great deal of discussion has taken place 
upon these papers, and some have attempted to show that 
they maintain the same bearing towards slavery. This 
dispute may be continued till doomsday, and it will still 
be true, as long as there is any force in language, that in 
the latter there is evinced a great letting down in the feel- 
hig of opposition to the system, as compared with the 
former. 

This comparison of the language, — along with the fact 
that the paper of 1818 passed unanimously, while that of 
1845 had only thirteen nays, with four excused from 
voting, against one hundred and sixty-eight yeas, and the 
further notorious fact that the South always claimed this 
as a triumph, — shows that at this time the Presbyterian 
Church had gone far in yielding to the wishes of extre- 
mists among Southern divines ; just as Northern statesmen 
had gone in yielding to the statesmen of the South. 

ACTION OF 1846. DECLARATION OF AGREEMENT. 

We of course notice the action of subsequent Assem- 
blies, to see what view was entertained by them of the 
respective papers of 1818 and 1845. So manifest was it 
to a large portion of the Presbyterian Church, both North 
and South, that the interpretation we have given is cor- 



ACTION OF 184n — DECLARATION OF AGREEMENT. .^89 

reot, that the Assembly of 1846 was besieged to make a 
deUverance, by " a collection of petitions and memorials 
on the subject of slavery." The following report was 
iiiade : 

Our Church has from time to time, during a period of nearly sixty 
years, expressed its views on the subject of slavery. During all this 
period it has held and uttered substantially the same sentiments. Be- 
lieving that this uniform testimony is true, and capable of vindication 
from the word of God, the Assembly is at the same time clearly of the 
opinion that it has already deliberately and solemnly spoken on this 
subject with sufficient fulness and clearness. Therefore, Resoked, that 
no further action upon this subject is at present needed. * * * * 
The following amendment was offered and laid on the table, viz. : " Ex- 
cept to say, that the action of the Assembly of 1845 is not understood 
by this Assembly to deny or rescind the testimony that has been ut- 
tered by the General Assembly previous to that date." The question 
vvas then taken on the report, when the ayes and noes were called for, 
and are as follows: ayes, 119; noes, 33. 

Subsequently, it appears, the same gentleman who of- 
fered the amendment which had been tabled, presented 
the following resolution, which " was adopted without 
division :" 

Resolved^ That in the judgment of this house, the action of the 
General Assembly of 1845 was not intended to deny or rescind the 
testimony often uttered by the General Assemblies previous to that 
date. 

Those who are at all acquainted with deliberative bodies, 
know that they, as truly as individuals, are subject to 
moods and humors, and that it is often difficult to divine the 
motive for their votes, or the influences at work to produce 
them. An illustration is before us. It is not easy to 
understand why the Assembly should table so important 
an amendment, and afterwards pass it in precisely the same 
words, so far as its essence is concerned. It does not 
appear from the Digest (from which our extracts are taken), 
at what stage of the proceedings the resolution passed. It 



390 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

may have been near the close, when, as often observed, 
business is pressing, members are inattentive, or many 
have retired from the body, or when some are bent on 
carrying some special measure of their own, and are using 
the lever employed among politicians in " log-rolling ;" 
circumstances under which, in all deliberative bodies, eccle- 
siastical not excluded, important measures are sometimes 
"put through."* 

But put any construction which is allowable upon these 
proceedings, including the original report (which, how- 
ever, had a large minority against it), and the most remark- 
able thing of all is, that the Assembly should have deemed 
the sentiments uttered " on the subject of slavery" " during 
a, period of nearly sixty years" as " substantially the same ;" 
and, therefore, not disagreeing with those expressed in 
1 845 — provided that is what indeed they meant. A decla- 
ration, however, to that effect, does not make it evident, 
even though made by the General Assembly. The terms, 
palliatives, tone, spirit, negations, omissions, of the paper 
of 1845, and the regard paid to it universally in the Souths 
all serve to show, as does the judgment of a vast number 
in the North, that it embodies principles in conflict with 
those so plainly declared in 1818. The case is clear, if the 
language in these respective papers is not to be taken in a 
sense wholly diplomatic. But there is a far more conclu- 
sive proof, if the action of the Assembly is to be taken as 

* " We all know and admit that a vote of the Assembly does not always express 
even the settled conviction of that body itself. Such votes are often given hastily, 
without due consideration, or from motives not affecting the principle involved in 
the case decided. At the end of the session, to avoid discussion, or to save time, 
things are often passed, or passed over, which, under other circumstances, would 
have met a different fate. It is also to be considered, that all who vote for a partic- 
ular measure do not commonly do so for the same reasons. A vote to lay a resolu- 
tion on the table is not decisive evidence that those who joined in it sanctioned the 
arguments of the speakers by whom the measure was advocated." — Princeton Ee- 
Di&w on the General Assembly of 1859. 



ANOTHER CONTRAST. 1818 AND 1849. 391 

decisive, that these papers are materially discordant. 
Before referring to it, however, (1863), we must examine 
other deliverances in theil* order. 

ANOTHER CONTRAST. 1818 AND 1849. 

The next paper ado])ted by the General Assembly w^as 
in "1849. It originated in three memorials, one praying 
the Assembly " not only to declare slavery to be a sin, but 
to enjoin upon all inferior courts a course of discipline 
which will remove it from our Church ;" a second, " asking 
the Assembly to appoint a committee to collect and report 
to the next Assembly, statistics on this subject, and digest 
a plan of abolition to be adopted by our Church;" and the 
third, "asking the Assembly to alter sundry terms and 
passages in the act of 1845, relating to slavery." Upon 
these memorials, the Assembly adopted the following 
paper : 

(i.) That the principles of the Presbyterian Church on the subject of 
slavery are already set forth in repeated declarations, so full and so 
explicit as to need no further exposition. (2.) That in view of the civil 
and domestic nature of this institution, and the competency of secular 
Legislatures alone to remove it, and in view of the earnest inquiry and 
deep agitation on the subject, which we now observe in one or more 
commonwealths of our country where slavery exists, it be considered 
peculiarly improper and inexpedient for this General Assembly to 
attempt or propose measures in the work of emancipation. (3.) That 
all necessary and proper provision is already made, for the just exercise 
of discipline upon those who neglect or violate the mutual duties of 
master and servant ; and the General Assembly is always ready to 
enforce these provisions, where the unfaithfulness of any inferior court 
is made manifest, by record, or appeal, or complaint. (4.) We rejoice to 
behove that the action of former Assemblies, so far from aiding or 
allowing the iniquitous oppression of man by his fellow-man, has been 
steadily promoting amelioration in the condition of slaves, by winning 
the confidence of masters, in our freedom from fanaticism, and by stim- 
ulating the slaveholder and his pastor alike, to labor in the religious 



392 THE CnUECH AND SLAVEET. 

in.struction of the blacks. (5.) That it be enjoined on Presbyteries 
situated in slaveholding States to continue and increase their exertions 
for tlie religious instruction of slaves, and to report distinctly, in their 
annual narratives to the General Assembly, the state of religion among 
the colored population. 

A careful examination will show that this paper presents 
pomts of decided contrast to that of 1818. It indeed says 
that " the principles" of the Church on this subject as pre- 
viously " set forth" are " so full and so explicit as to need 
no further exposition ;" but this is very different from ex- 
plicitly adopting them. If, however, it be niaintained that 
this is equivalent to an approval, it is very plain that other 
" principles" are here introduced directly antagonistic to 
tijose of the earlier paper; or, at the very least, discour- 
agements are presented to the most important action which 
that paper urged upon the Church. For example, in 1849, 
" the civil and domestic nature" of slavery, " and the com- 
petency of secular Legislatures alone to remove it," a])pear 
to have been discovered, and are deemed obstacles to 
emancipation. But its "nature" and its civil status were 
always the same ; and while it was true that " secvilar 
Legislatures" alone could remove it as a whole from their 
respective States, it was also true that individuals might 
at anytime i-emove it from therjiselves, and from t/ie C/iurc/t, 
had tliey clioscn to make the sacrifice. If the laws required 
emancipated sla^ es to be removed beyond the precincts of 
the State, it was only a question of dollars and cents where 
there was a disposition to emancipate. On the well-known 
ground of individual ability, even under sacrifices, — as 
well as the influence of the Church, if rightly directed, to 
bring about eraancii>ation in the State at largo, — emanci- 
pation is urged in 1818, and members are exhorted to it, 
"uninfluenced by tlie expense or inconvenience" which it 
"may involve;" aud tiiey aie warnel "against unduly 



A PROTEST. ACTION OF 1845 EQUIVOCAL. 893 

extending this plea of necessity," and " against making it 
a cover for the love and practice of slavery, or a pretence 
for not using eflorts that are lawful and practicable to 
extinguish this evil." 

A PEOTEST. — ACTION OF 1845 EQUIVOCAL. 

By what vote the paper of 1849 passed, we do not know ; 
undoubtedly by a very large one, as we find a protest to 
the action recorded, signed by only four members. If 
this expresses the full strength of the minority, then it 
presents palpable evidence that the abatement from at least 
some of *'the principles" announced in 1818 largely per- 
vaded the Church, and completely overthrows the position 
taken by extremists of the South and their ISTorthern sym- 
pathizers, — so far as this large and influential body of 
Christians is concerned, spread over the entire country,— 
that the Church is mainly responsible for " abolitionizing 
the country;" for, during the very period in which it is"] 
charged that abolition was growing, so as to extenuate the 
crime if not to justify the South in ultimate rebellion, the 
Church was decidedly more " conservative" in its leaning 
towards Southern opinion, and far more lenient towards 
its members for their neglect of what was deemed a solemn 
duty, thirty years before, concerning the whole subject of j 
emancipation. 

This protest has another value in reference to the ques- 
tion immediately in hand. It states what no member of 
the Assembly ventured to deny, what indeed was notorious, 
what has been verified to the last, and what constituted 
the ground of " asking the Assembly to alter sundry terms 
and passages in the act of 1845," viz. : " The true position 
of our Church, in regard to this subject, which is evidently 
one of overwhelming importance, is not known with cer- 
tainty either by all its ministers or members, or by the 



394 THE CHUSCH AND SLAVERY. 

world at large; some affirming that the Church sanctions 
slavery as an institution having the moral approbation of 
God ; and others, that it condemns it." 

This fact is as clear and true as any other fact before the 
public : that there has been a very prevalent opinion in the 
Church, both Korth and South, — the South rejoicing in it, 
a portion of the Northern members lamenting it, another 
portion rejoicing in it for the South's sake, and others con- 
ceding it for the sake of peace, — that the paper of 1845 
was a large concession to the South from the previous 
stand taken by the Church. So much is undeniable, as a 
simjjle fact. Now it Mould be quite remarkable if all these 
classes and persons were mistaken about the bearing of 
that paper. It would be equivalent to mistaking their 
own positive convictions. As the passage of the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill was regarded as a political triumph to tho 
South by Southern statesmen, so the adoption of the paper 
of 1845 was hailed as an ecclesiastical triumph by South- 
ern divines. This ought of itself to be conclusive. An 
examination of the document shows that this opinion was 
well founded. 

ACTION OF 1861. — SYNOD OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

Passing by the action of 1850, the next in the order of 
time, in which the Assembly simply declare that their 
" previous and repeated declarations are such as to render 
any action mmecessary," we come down to the Assembly 
of 1861. This Assembly made no formal deliverance upon 
slavery, but referred certain memoriahsts "to all the deli- 
verances of the General Assembly on this subject from 
1818 to the present time." We find, however, in the pro- 
ceedings of this Assembly, proof of an official character 
that the Synod of South Carolina regarded the act of 1818 
as "virtually rescinded" by the act of 1845. This, as we 



ACTION OF 1863. REPUDIATION OF 1845. 395 

have said, w.is but the common opinion of the South. The 
Synod put this, in form, into their lecords, and this decla- 
ration was made the basis of an exception to their approval 
by the Assembly. 



ACTION OF 1863. — REPUDIATION OF 1845. 

The next action upon slavery was by the Assembly of 
1863. It furnishes the most incontrovertible testimony to 
the position which we have maintained, — founded in the 
direct and formal action of the Assembly itself, — that a 
wide difference, in their judgment, was manifest between 
the acts of 1818 and 1845; that, in fact, the latter was a 
concession to Southern opinion, or an abatement from 
former testimonies, which they could not approve. This 
Assembly made a deliverance upon slavery in response to 
" a request" from a single Presbytery in Illinois, contain- 
ing but eight ministers. Under the remarkable circum- 
stances of the times, when slavery had demonstrated its 
character and aims, and had plunged thirty millions of 
people into a civil war, which has no parallel in history, — 
then raging for two years, — all for the purpose of " per- 
petuating and extending" the institution, and founding a 
Government of which it should be the "corner-stone," — 
and when all the members from the rebel States had with- 
drawn from the Church, so that the members in the loyal 
States had all the power in their own hands,- — the utmost 
that the Assembly of 1863 found it in their hearts to do, 
and all they actually did, and all that any Presbytery in 
the whole Church requested them to do, and that too a 
solitary and a small one, was to " reaffirm the testimony 
of 1818 ;" simply to set forth anew those very principles in 
terms on which their fathers had planted themselves forty- 
five years before, and to say no worse things of the system 
18 



396 THE CHURCH and slavery. 

which had wrouglit out such tei-rible results than those 
venerated men had authorized by their example. 

Nor was the action of 1863 taken " unanimously," as was 
that of 1 8 1 8. There was a minority of several votes against 
it, and some of this minority were from the free States ; 
thus showing, that even in the midst of civil war caused, 
by slavery, the Church in tlie loyal States was not as 
"radical" as were tlie fathers of the Church in the whole 
country in 1818, and showing therefore the utter baseless- 
ness of the charge that the rebellion was provoked by 
" abolitionizing the Church." 

Now observe how the Assembly of 1863 regarded the 
paper of 1845. They say: 

The Assembly has, from the first, uttered its sentiments on the sub- 
ject of slavery in substantially the same language. The action of 1818 
was taken with more care, made more clear, full, and exphcit, and was 
adopted unanimously. It has since remained that true and Scriptural 
deliverance on this important subject, by which our Church is deter- 
mined to abide. It lias never been repealed, amended, or modified, but 
has frequently been referred to, and reiterated in subsequent Assem- 
blies. And when some persons fancied that the action of 1845 in some 
Avay interfered with it, the Assembly of 1846 declared, with much 
unanimity, that the action of 1845 was not intended to deny or rescind 
the testimony on the subject previously uttered by General Asserabhes; 
and by these deliverances we still abide. 

This is rather plain language, and very much like that 
of 1846, from which alone we might erroneously be led to 
infer that they regarded the paper of 1845 " substantially 
the same" in its principles as all the previous deliverances. 
But a practical test as to whether they meant this was at 
hand, and the result was decisive. In the last words, 
w^hich were a clincher to the whole utterance,^"' and by 
these deliverances we still abide," — some ambiguity might 
be supposed to rest. It was therefore moved to insert the 
word " all" before " these," for the express purpose of 



REVIEW OF TESTIMONIES. 1787 TO 1863. 397 

embracing the paper of 1845. The minutes record this 
motion " lost." It was then " moved to lay the whole sub- 
ject on the table." This too was " lost." The minutes 
say : " The report was then adopted, without amendment." 
No clearer testimony than this could well be given that 
this General Assembly did not regard the paper of 1845 
with favor ; did not regard it as agreeing icith j^revious 
action. No other explanation can be given for voting 
down the proposed amendment. They did not wish, in 
express terms, to indorse it, as they did, in express terms, 
indorse the paper of 1818, and thus to include it among 
those deliverances by which they declared they would 
"still abide." 

REVIEW OF TESTIMONIES. 1787 TO 1863. 

We have now brought down the testimony of the Pres- 
byterian Church on slavery from the earliest period to the 
action of the Assembly of 1863. The action of 1864, we 
shall notice in its place. 

This is among the largest ecclesiastical bodies in the 
United States, and, until the outbreak of rebellion, extended 
into all parts of the country. For learning, ability, and 
influence, its ministers and its people stand second to no 
denomination of Christians in the country. The sentiments 
they have from time to time uttered upon slavery, ^j>-o and 
con^ in the pulpit, in ecclesiastical judicatories, through 
their religious newspapers, monthlies, quarterlies, and 
volumes published, — and they have spoken frequently, from 
the hebdomadal to the huge octavo, — have probably had 
as great an influence in forming the public opinion of the 
country, both North and South, upon this vexed question, 
as has emanated from any other equal number of persons ; 
and we believe that a fair criterion of these sentiments, at 
least as regards those persons who have always wielded 



398 THE CHURCH AXD SLxVVERY. 

most influence in the denomination (with the exception of 
the ultra opinions more recently adopted in the extreme 
South), is to be found in the deliverances of its supreme 
judicatory, the General Assembly. 

What, then, in the main, is the teaching of the facts 
which we have collated from all these oflicial sources, upon 
the question immediately in hand ? It is substantially and 
plainly this : 

1. That from 1787 to 1836, or about fifty years, public 
testimony was borne by the Presbyterian Church against 
slavery as a system, in the most decided terms, the most 
explicit declaration being the act of 1818. 

2. That from 1836 to the period of the rebellion and the 
withdrawal of the Churches in the rebel States, in 1861, or 
about twenty-five years, there was gradually developed 
within the denomination that which grew into a more 
decided proslavery sentiment, or, to use a favorite term, an 
intense " conservatism ;" to that degree, at least, which 
embraced many of the leading minds in the body, and other 
influential classes who controlled its higher judicatories; 
as evidenced particularly, though mildly expressed, in the 
act of 1845 ; and which, during this period, prevented any 
contrary action by the General Assembly, though certain 
individuals and Presbyteries frequently attempted to se- 
cure it. 

3. That during the former period of fifty years, the high- 
est judicatory of the Presbyterian Church made formal 
declaration, six specific times, or in each deliverance 
enacted during the period, in favor of the " abolition 
OF SLAVERY," CDid Urged the Churches under its care to 
labor for that end^ viz., in 1787, directly; in 1793, by re- 
publishing the action of 1787 ; in 1795, by expressing "the 
deepest concern" that " any vestiges of slavery" remained 
in the country; in 1815, directly; and in 1818, directly and 



EEVIEW OF TESTIMONIES. 1787 TO 1863. 399 

most urgently : while, on tlie other hand, during the second 
period of twenty-live years, not once is emancipation 
RECOMMENDED IN ANY FORM, nor is any positive disappro- 
bation whatever expressed of the system ; but in tlie two 
more extended deliverances of this period, those of 1845 
and 1849, the difficulties of emancipation are suggested, 
and thus, so far forth, was the work discouraged. The 
pa))er of 1845 urges Christians to seek " the repeal of unjust 
and oppressive laws, and the amendment of such as are 
defective," but sounds no note, in any form or manner, for 
emancipation. 

4. That after the rebellion had been in progress two 
years, in 1863, when the Assembly was composed of per- 
sons from the loyal States only, the Church simply took 
its stand upon the platform of its earlier sentiment, as ex- 
pressed in the act of 1818. 

5. That it therefore appears, — so far as this large, extend- 
ed, and influential body of Christians is concerned, — that 
during the very period in which it has been alleged that 
the Church was becoming abolitionized, and the country 
being educated up to a point of opposition to slavery which 
justified or extenuated a disruption of the Church and of 
the Union, the contrary sentiment prevailed and the con- 
trary action was taken in all the deliverances of tlie highest 
court of this body ; and so marked and decided was what 
was termed the " healthy conservatism" of this period, 
operating as a " breakwater against abolitionism" in other 
quarters, that the author of the paper of 1845 exultingly 
referred to it " as constituting our Chui'ch emphatically the 
bond of union to these United States ;" and many others 
no doubt believed what a distinguished millionnaive^ who 
in writing publicly pledged on a certain contingency a hun- 
dred thousand dollars to the General Assembly in 1859, 
was understood to express, that " the two strongest hoops 



400 THE CHUKCH AND SLAVERY. 

which held the Union together were the Democratic party 
and the Old School Piesbyterian Church." 

COREOBOEATIVE TESTIMONY TO THESE POSITIONS. 

There are certain special facts in great number which 
might be produced, further ilkistrating the truth of the 
second and fifth of the foregoing points. We will barely 
note a few of them. 

The act of 1818, originally passed, as has been stated, 
unanimously^ not a single vote being cast against it from 
the remotest South. When this act was reaffirmed in 
1863, after the seceders had withdrawn, and there were 
none in the Assembly but from the loyal States, there was 
a minority against it ; how many, we do not know, as the 
ayes and noes were not taken. Nor were all of this 
minority from the Border slave States. Several were from 
different parts of the free States. This is significant. The 
Church was not as decidedly antislavery even in 1863, in 
the midst of the rebellion, as in 1818. 

In the Assembly of 1859, a resolution was offered recom- 
mending the American Colonization Society to the patron- 
age of the Churches, a measure that had been passed some 
dozen times before, at dilferent periods ; but now it was 
vehemently opposed by Dr. Thornwell and other leading 
men of the South, on the ground that "the Church is 
exclusively a spiritual organization, and possesses none but 
spiritual power," and therefore this would be a perversion 
of her functions. Thus the very mildest possible form of 
expression adverse to slavery, — even if there was intended 
any thing more than a simple approval of that philan- 
thr(^pic enterprise on its own merits, — could not be 
tolerated by Southern men. The argument was, that this 
was bringing the Church, " a spiritual body," to commend 
a "secular enterprise," though philanthropic, — a view 



CORROBORATIVE TESTIMONY. 401 

doctrine in the Church, — and the purpose was believed to 
be to erect a barricade, in this restriction of the Church's 
functions, behind which slavery should ever be safe from 
assault.* 

* The position taken in the Assembly of 1S59, by Dr. Thornwell and other Southern 
men, referred to above, was pronounced by Dr. Hodge, in the Princeton Review fur 
July of that year, a "new doctrine" in the Church; and this is admitted, also, in the 
Southern Prenhyterian Review, of Columbia, S. C, for October of that year. This 
" new doctrine" is again referred to by Dr. Hodge, in the same periodical for July, 
1864. On reviewing the case of Dr. McPheeters before the General Assemblj', he 
says : " We think Dr. McPheeters committed some very grave mistakes, which were the 
source of all his difficulties. In the first place, he adopted the new exaggerated doc- 
trine as to the spirituuHty of tJfi Chm-ch, and the limited range of her prerogative as 
a teacher. He says he had always resisted the introduction of what he calls > politics' 
into the house of God, and on this ground opposed all deliverances on the part uf 
Church courts touching the present rebellion, and the introduction into the services 
of the sanctuary of any thing which implied a decided opinion as to the controversy 
which now rends the country. In the year 1859, Dr. Thornwell opposed the recom- 
mendation of the Colonization Society, on the principle above stated. In private^ 
if not ill public., he took the ground that the division of the country teas a certain 
event. [This confirms what we have said in a Note, page 158, of Dr. Thornweirs 
declaration at the Assembly at Rochester, in May, I860.] He, however, wished to 
prevent the division of the Church as consequent on the division of our national 
Union. To secure that end, he said, it was necessary to adopt the principle that the 
only duty of the Church as a teacher, was to preach the Gospel, to labor for the salva- 
tion of men. He said in his public speech that if the Government choose to reopen 
the slave-trade, the Church would have no right to open her lips against it. This 
new doctrine excited great attention and feeling. When the Assembly met in 1860, 
the subject was again brought up, and caused for a time great anxiety. A resolution 
was prepared and presented by the Committee on Bills and Overtures, affirming the 
directly oi)posite doctrine [drafted by Dr. Hodge], and asserting that the Church, as 
God's witness on earth, is authorized and hound to reprove all sin and to support 
all truth and 7-igMeousness. This resolution was adopted by a unanimous vote of 
the Assembly. * * * Politics, in the wide sense of the word, includes the science 
of Government, the policy of States, and the duties of citizens. The plain principle 
which determines the legitimate sphere of the action of the Church, is, that it is limited 
to teaching and enforcinq moral and religious truth; and to such truth" as are 
revealed and determined by the sacred Scriptures. The Bible gives us no rule for 
deciding the litigated questions about public improvements, a national bank, or a 
protective tariflf, or State rights. But it does give us rules for pronouncing about 

SLAVE LAWS, TUE SLAVE-TRADE, OBEDIENCE TO MAGISTRATES, TREASON, REBEL- 
LION, AND REVOLUTION. To shut her mouth on these questions, is to make her 
UNFAITHFUL TO iiEE HiGU VOCATION. The authors of this new theory soon repu- 
diated it; and while those who agreed with them at the North were protesting 
against Churcfi cnur-ts saying a word against the rebellion, the pulpits. Conven- 
tions, Synods, and Assemblies, at tlie South, were resounding with exciting appeals 
to inflame the spirit of rebellion. We think that a great part of Dr. McPhoeters's 



402 THE CHURCH AXD SLAVERY. 

At Other times, a portion of the people being aware tliat 
the Presbyterian Church, so for as the manifestations in 
her higliest cornet were concerned, had been for a long 
time diifting away from lier earher position, desired for 
many years a reaffirination in direct terms of the act of 
1818. This was, in some instances, proposed to the As- 
sembly ; it was discussed, and several times acted upon, 
in Presbyteries and Synods, and canvassed in religious 
journals ; but the prevailing ijifluence always discounte- 
nanced such reaftii'MiMtioD, and it is believed that there was 
but one religious journal in the Church that favored it. 
At the same time, the South were violently opjiosed to its 
reaffirmation, because they regarded it as totally erro- 
neous. Their religious journals plainly indicated that it 
would be the signal for disruption. It could scarcely be 
tolerated by them unrepealed ; never would it have been, 
if reaffirmed. Southern ministers expressed through 
ISTorthern journals what would be the consequences of a 
re-enactment of the paper of 1818, and warned the 
IsTorthern portion of the Church against such a step. 
Many at the South declared that it had been " virtually 
repealed" by the act of 1845. The Synod of South Caro- 
lina so declared by formal enactment. Others insisted 
that the act of 1818 remained on the record, not as indi- 
cating the Church's present judgment, but only as a matter 
of history^ showing the opinions of a bygone and unen- 
lightened age on the character of slavery. The men of 

difficulties have arisen from his adopting a principle which prevented him from 
uniting with his brethren in condemning the rebellion." Elsewhere, Dr. Hodge 
says, of the duty of a pastor, when speaking of the case of Dr. McPheeters : " He is 
the organ of the people in presenting their prayers and thanksgiving to God. They 
have the right to have their hearts' desires for their country brought before His throne. 
If the pastor's principles or feelings prevent him from doing this ; if he cannot py ay 
for the success of our arms, and for the suppres»ion of the, rebellion; if he 
cannot heartily thank God for the victories He may grant our armies, he cannot 
satisfy the just demands of the people." 



PROOF AM> ILLUSTKATIONS. 403 

the South took their position Ofjenly and defiantly on the 
ground of deeming that paper as teaching a totally false 
doctrine of the luord of God. 

TEOOF AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Let us, at this point, give the proof of this. It is found 
in the action of Southern Church judicatories, and in theif 
religious journals and periodicals. For the sake of greater 
brevity, we take our illustrations chiefly from two or three 
sources among many. 

The Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1861, 
says : " The action of 1818 still stands upon her records (of 
the General Assembly), not as the law, but the history 
of the subject ; and Southern Presbyterians are well con- 
tent that it should so stand." This Bevieiv^ conducted by 
the Professors in the Theological Seminary which was sup- 
ported more than any other Seminary by the Church in the 
Cotton and Gulf States, — or by South Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, — may 
Avell be supposed to represent the general sentiment of the 
Church in that vast region. 

The Southern Presbyterian^ a v/eekly religious journal, 
which was also deemed to represent the Church in several 
Synods in those States, thus speaks, in several successive 
numbers, on the points of the case stated : 

It will be manifestly impossible for the Presbyterians in the Confede- 
rate States to maintain their connection with those in the United States, 
while the position of the latter on the subject of slavery is dubious, or 
if it is the fact that the declarations and recommendations of the Assembly 
of 1818 are not "virtually repealed." (Feb. 23, 1861-) As to the act 
of 1818, I agree with you, 1st. That much of its language could not be 
now understood except in an abolition sense. 2d. That it could not 
now be adopted, or authoritatively delivered, by our Church united. 
(April 6, 1861.) We have said tliat we think our Northern brethren 
owe it to us, candidly and explicitly, to let us know what are theib 
18* 



404 THE CHUBCH AND SLAVERY. 

views about slavery, and especially as to the meaning and effect of the act 
q/" 1818, and whether or not it has been virtually repealed or reversed. We 
DO THINK SO. * * * The South wants no action at all on the part 
of the next or any future Assembly. We are perfectly contented with 
the position of the Old School Presbyterian Church on the subject of 
slavery. The Synod of South Carolina said wianimously, that " from our 
brethren of the whole Church, annually assembled, we have received 
nothing but justice and courtesy." This sentiment is not peculiar to 
the South Carolina Synod, hut is the sentiment, we suppose, of the whole 
South. There is no danger, therefore, of the South asking for the repeal 
of the act of 1818. What the assembly said in 1845 satisfies us. 
Southern men never did agitate the Assembly on this subject — they 
never were the unruly spirits. And having been perfectly contented 
FOR SIXTEEN YEARS With the position of the Church, why should they now 
ask for any change? (April 13, 1861.) We have further said, in as in- 
telligible terms as we could, that, if the act of 1818 is to be regarded as 
NOW the " opinion," or the faith, or the law, of the Presbyterian Church 
in the United States, it would be impossible for the Presbyterians in the 
Confederate States to bear it; and that we thought it due to the South 
that we should not be left in any uncertainty on this point. * * * 
It has been the impression of the South that this act had been virtually 
reversed by subsequent decisions of the Assembly. So the Synod of South 
Carolina affirmed last December. Under this impression. Southern 
Presbyterians have been content and quiet, believing that our Northern 
brethren held correct and Scriptural vieivs on the subject. It has been our 
joy and pride to think that the errors of our fatht^rs had been currecti^d, 
and the minds of Northern Presbyterians kept pure from the follies 
of modern abolitionists. The act of 1818 was regarded in the South as 
only the opinion of the men composing the Assembly then in session, 
and not as the authoritative p^ermaneiit judgment of the Presbyterian 
Church. * * * The act of 1845 was supposed by the South to 
BE A DECISION IN OUR FAVOR. * * * If this is not SO, then we hesi- 
tate not to say that Southern Presbyterians have been misled and be- 
trayed. . * * * In our humble opinion, any Church in these Con- 
federate States that affiliates wica those who maintain the act of 1818, 
* * * will, in a very little while, find themselves in a position where 
they will have abundance of reason for repentance. * * * ^q are 
aware that certain schemers and wire- workers in our ecclesiastical affairs 
at the North, are making diligent use of their peculiar opportunities and 
special talents in that line, to engineer the Southern part of the Church 



NORTHERN RESPONSIBILITY. 405 

into quiescence ; but they will fail, and must meet the fate which in- 
variably awaits those who resort to such methods to secure selfish ends 
(April 27, 1861.) 

Here, then, is the most incontestable proof, — in the 
judgment of those who were most deeply interested in 
the subject as a practical matter, — that the Church had 
swerved from her ancient position, and substantially in- 
dorsed, or at least tacitly acquiesced in, the Southern view^s ; 
that she had repudiated the doctrines of 1818 by the act 
of 1845; and therefore the lohole South had "been per- 
fectly contented for sixteen years with the position of the 
Church." 

THE INEVITABLE EFFECT. NORTHERN RESPONSIBILITY. 

The men of the Soutli were undoubtedly honest and 
sincere in this judgment of where the Church stood. The 
acts in question, which they compared, sustained them. 
Their relations to the subject, as affecting their position 
at home, would not lead them to over-eagerness in adopt- 
ing such an opinion ; but would naturally lead them in an 
opposite direction, unless they felt sure of their ground 
and of their friends. We can somewhat, therefore, enter 
into their surprise when assured, in the winter of 1861, from 
the atmosphere of Chicago, that, after all, the acts of 1818 
and 1845 were in sentiment the same! " The act of 1818 
was regarded in the South" (says The Southern Pres- 
byterian., of April 2V, 1861) "only as the opinion of the 
men composing the Assembly then in session, and not as 
the authoritative permanent judgment of the Presbyterian 
Church." But, " we are now told, however, that the later 
deliverances of the Assembly on this subject are not to be 
understood as differing from that and preceding decisions. 
No less authority than Dr. N. L. Rice, loho has been re- 
garded in the South as our best friend at the North- 



406 THE CHURCH AND SLAVEKY. 

and who, if we mistake not, drew up the act of 1845, which 
was supposed by the South to be a decision in our favor^ 
tells us that we must not interpret that as reversing former 

acts." 

In all the seriousness and fervor of our condemnation of 
the wicked deeds of the Southern clergy in bringing on 
the rebellion, we confess to some sympathy for men under 
the circumstances in which this Northern blast found them, 
when, counting on the support of their quondam friends, 
tliey had possibly gone too far to retreat with safety. We 
can imagine something of the bittei-ness of anguish with 
which the pen traced the words, founded on the assurance 
of the identity in sentiment of these acts by the author of 
the latter : '^ If this is so, then we hesitate not to say, that 
Southern Presbyterians have been misled and hetro^yedP 

But, so for as the responsibility for the position of the 
Church is concerned, as this position was understood uni- 
versally at the South, the Church herself must bear it ; 
while, unquestionably, the leaders of the Church, in her 
courts, and in other posts of influence where her public 
sentiment is manufactured or reflected, have the chief bur- 
den on their shoulders. There were those who remonstrated 
against this position which the South claimed the Church 
to have taken, but they were always overruled ; Southern 
hifluences under Northern comphance dominated; a re- 
assertion of her early testimonies was impossible ; men 
who were dissatisfied with her position, found effort use- 
less, and were content to bide their time ; and thus the 
Church stood for " sixteen years ;" and now, as the result 
of this, and corresponding influences at work in the State, 
we are daily " making history," in deeds which crimson a 
hundred battle-fields with patriot gore ! 

We have a very decided opinion on this whole subject, 
and we have very little concern whether it be deemed wise 



NORTHERN RESPONSIBILITY. 40V 

or otherwise by the responsible actors in the case. It is 
well supported by the facts, and by the acknowledged prin- 
ciples of human nature everywhere prevalent. 

Looking at matters from the stand-point of the rebellion 
and several years previous to it, so far from the position 
of the Church during this second period mentioned, or from 
about 1836 to 1861, — a position of departure from the tes- 
timony of the fathers, and to which the Church has since 
returned, — being a cause for exultation, as it has been vv'ith 
some, it is with us the reverse. So far from this position 
having contributed, as the distinguished author of the 
paper of 1845 and his distinguished friend believed, to hold 
the Union together, it is a solemn judgment to which a 
large portion of the people have arrived, that such conces- 
sions by the Clmrch, and similar concessions by the civil 
authorities, only hastened its disruption. To use a well- 
understood illustration, the leaders of Southern opinion, in 
both Church and State, had become like spoiled children. 
The repeated concessions of Northern politicians, yielding 
the principles held by the fathers of the Republic, made 
Southern politicians more exorbitant in their demands, 
until they came to believe that verily the whole country 
was theirs. The repeated concessions of the Northern 
Church, culminating in the Presbyterian body in 1845 and 
sticking there immovably under all remonstrances, pro- 
duced a similar state of mind in Southern divines. If both 
classes had stood firmly, during all our history, by the 
teachings of the fathers, and to which the mass of both in 
the North have since returned, the rebellion never would 
have occurred.* 

* If Presbyterians of the Old School Church desire to know the cause of the with- 
drawal of the Southern Presbyteries and Synods, and of the formation of the " Gen- 
eral Assembly of the Confederate States of America,'" in December, 1861. they may 
find evidence which is conclusive that the leaders of the Church in the South were 
not led to this step bi/ the action of the General Asmmbly at Philadelphia in May ^ 



408 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

ACTIOlSr OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1864. 

We come now to the last exhibition of sentiment on 
the subject of slavery, made by the General Assembly of 
tiie Presbyterian Church in the United States. It is the 

1861, ujwn the -state of the country. They had taken their position months before 
THAT ASSEMBLY MET, and had determined on a division of the Church in consequence 
of the course of things in the State ; thus chainins: the Church of Christ to Csesar'a 
war chariot. While, therefore, it may be true, as Dr. Hodge says of Dr. Thorn well, 
in a previous note (page 401), that in 1859, "he wished to prevent the division of the 
Church as consequent upon the division of our national Union," subsequent facts 
show, as will be seen, that after the Presidential election of 1860, and during the 
winter of 1861. the leaders of the Church in the South (and Dr. Thornwell, beyond a 
doubt, among them) tool: other ground, and determined on a disruption of the 
Church, "as consequent upon" what had then taken place in the "secession" of sev- 
eral States. It may be fur her true, that the reason why the "resolution" presented 
by Dr. Hodge in the General Assembly of 1S60 (declaring contrary to the "new" 
Thornwell theory of the power of the Church), " was adopted by a unanimous vote."— 
even Dr. Thornwell not voting against it,— was, because the leaders had at that early 
day determined to divide the Church if the Union should be divided ; and that they 
expected the latter event to occur beyond doubt, is seen in what Dr. Thornwell and 
others said at the Assembly in 1860, as stated in a previous chapter (Note, page 158). 
The facts which show the disruption on that ground are (1.) Several Presbyteries 
that had akeady appointed commissioners to the Assembly at Philadelphia, called, 
In April and May, special meetings and revoked these appoint7nents. Notices of 
those meetings and of their action are found in Southern religious papers that are 
now before us. Some Presbyteries, and those from the extretne South,— as from 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and other points most remote from Philadelphia, 
—were represented; proving conclusively that it was not the apprehenfdon of war 
which necessarily kept members away. Many in Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, 
and other less remote points, did not attend because their commissions had been 
revoked, or they were persuaded by those who lead the Church not to go. (2.) The 
unstinted abuse which the Southern religious press heaped upon Southern Commis- 
sioners who did sit in that Assembly, is another item of proof of the foregone deter- 
mination for division. The speeches and the votes of these men against the Spring 
resolutions, did not shield them from abuse. They " should not have appeared there 
at all''' these papers declared. Did space permit, we might verify this by quotations- 
(3.) The fact that the Synod of South Carolina sent up its records for review, is no 
proof of a willingness still to continue ecclesiastically connected with the North. 
They had not been sent for several years ; and there is ample ground for believing 
that the moUve for then sending them was to draw forth from the Assembly just the 
action it took, viz. : a disapproval of the Synod's action, declaring the act of 1818 
on slavery " virtually repealed." This was an arcrument the Synod wished to use 
'' to fire the Southern heart." (4.) In TJie Southern Presbyterian of April 27, 1861, is 
an editorial on "Division of the Presbyterian Church," published almost a full month 
belure the Assemblv met. The editor says: " We have plainly and unequivocally 



ACTION OF 1864. 409 

report drawn up by the Hon. Stanley Matthews, of Cin- 
cinnati, and presented by him to the Assembly, from the 
Committee to whom the subject was referred, and was 

expressed our conviction (in previous numbers of this paper), th<at a separate eccle- 
siastical organization of the Southern Presbyterian Church will be desirable and 
necessary.'''' "As to the future relations between Northern and Southern Presby- 
terians, ecclesuiatically, we have no doubt of the issue, and are very well content to 
let things take their course. We do not think it necessary or expedient to say or do 
any thing to hasten the inevAtable result.''^ "In the Assembly which will meet in 
Philadelphia on the 16th of next month, we suppose there will be scarcely one com- 
rnissioner from the Southern States. If any such appear there, we are convinced it 
will not be with the approbation of their eo)istiiue)its." Still earlier than this (April 
C, 1S61), in an article on "The next General Assembly," the same paper shows that 
the "secession of the South" was "the reason" urged by the leaders for a division 
of the Church, as follows: "Every thing we have seen and heard against a division 
of the Church, in consequence of the secession of the SouiJi, proceeds on the assump- 
tion that such division is desired and proposed on the ground of the abolition senti 
ments of Northern Presbyterians. We would again most earnestly protest against 
this. We do not know any one who desires a division of the Church on thatgkound. 
The existence of a few out-and-out abolitionists in ihe Church at the North, and the 
radically unsound views of the majority of our brethren there on the slavery question, 
will be a reason to reconcile us to a separation from them ; but it is a narrow and 
a shallow notion to suppose that is the reason (editor's italics) which will make such 
se|)aration desirable and necessary." Still earlier (March 30, 1S61), the same paper 
says: " We do not know any one who favors a separate organization of the Church 
in the Confederate States, either on account of the act of the Assembly of ISIS, or of 
any other action of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, or of the views of 
our Northern brethren in genei-al on the slavery question. So far as we are aware, 
those who think such an organization will finally be best, and even necessary, form 
their judgment on othkb reasons than thtse altogether.'''' We have seen what 
those " other reasons" are, — " the secession of the South," — from the extracts given 
above from papers of a later date, where they speak out what in March they did 
not " think aloud" quite so plainly. 

It is thus conclusively established that the leaders, — the men who had so much 
power over both Church and State, — had determined on ecclesiastical separation 
MONTHS BEFORE the Assembly met; and, also, weeks before the attack on Fort 
Sumter; and "the reason" for this was, "the secession of the South." These 
rulers in the Church thus made her a tail to the State, in her ecclesiastical organ- 
ization ; \\hS\&, personally, they led both Church and State into "secession" at the 
start. They did not, at that period, deem the act of 1818, nor "the rauically unsound 
views of the majority" of their brethren at the North " on the slavery question," as 
"the reason" for division; for, the States having "seceded," every thing "on the 
slace) y question" would be safe, of course. They therefore openly put the division 
of the Church on the ground of the political secession of the South. (5.) In view 
of the facts above given, the " Confederate General Assembly," by the pen of Dr, 
Thornwell, in their Address to the Christian world, justifying their separation from 
the Northern branch of the Church, " unanimously" perpetrate a serious libel upon 



410 THE CHUECH AND SLAVERY. 

adopted by the Assembly, at Newark, 'Rew Jersey, in 
May last. 

It gives an historical sketch of the earlier deliverances 
of the Church on this subject, opening in these words : 

In the opinion of the General Assembly, the solemn and momentous 
circumstances of our times, the state of our country, and the condition 
of our Church, demand a plain declaration of its sentiments upon th& 
question of slavery, in view of its present aspects in this country. 
From the earliest period of our Church, the General Assembly de- 
livered unequivocal testimonies upon this subject, which it will be 
profitable now to reaffirm. 

As we have already given in this chapter a summary 
of these earlier testimonies, we omit from the report its 
historical sketch, and give in full the remaining portion, 
in which the doctrines of the Assembly, asserted at the 
present time are embodied. It is as follows : 

Such were the early and unequivocal instructions of our Church. It 
is not necessary too minutely to inquire how faithful and obedient to 
these lessons and warnings those to whom they were addressed have 
been. It ought to be acknowledged that v,^e have all much to confess 
and lament as to our short-comings in this respect. Whether a strict 

the truth, when, referring to the action upon the Spring resolutions in the Asseuibly 
of May, 1861, they present that action as " the first thing" which led them seriously to 
contemplate separation. They say: " The first thing which roused our Presbyteries 
to look the question of separation seriously in the face, was the course of the Assem- 
bly in venturing to determine, as a court of Christ, which it did by necessary 
implication, the true interpretation of the Constitution of the United States as to 
the kind of Government it intended to form." Did not the "Presbyteries" of 
the South "look the question of separation seriously in the face," when they held 
special meetings for the purpose of revoking the commissions given to attend 
the Assembly, and when they did revoke them weeks before the Assembly met? 
The "Confederate General Assembly" knew these things were so, and knew, 
moreover, that the leaders had declared for "separation" even long before; and 
yet they "unanimously" try to deceive the world by declaring the contrary. This, 
we suppose, forms an element in the "manly Christian logic" of this Address of the 
" Confederate General Assembly," by reason of which its Louisville indorsers sa 
warmly commend it to their readers, when they say with equal truth that it was 
"the fatal her«sy of the late General Assembly (of 1S61), in the unscriptural assump- 
tion of power in ecclesiastical courts over civic and political questions," which 
"caused the rending of the Church.'" 



ACTION OF 1864. 411 

and careful application of this advice would have rescued the country 
from the evil of its condition, and the dangers which have since threat- 
ened it, is known to the Omniscient alone. Whilst we do not believe 
that the present judgments of our Heavenly Father and Almighty and 
Eighteous Governor have been inflicted solely in punishment for our 
continuance in this SIN ; yet it is our judgment that the recent events 
of our history, and the present condition of our Church and country, 
furnish manifest tokens that the time has at length come, in the providence 
of God, when it is His will that every vestige of human slavery among us 
shoidd be effaced, and that every CJtristian man should address himself 
with industry and earnestness to his ajypropriate part in the performance 
of this great duty. 

"Whatever excuses for its postponement may heretofore have existed, 
no longer avail. When the country was at peace within itself, and 
the Church was unbroken, many consciences were perplexed, in the 
presence of this great evil, for the want of an adequate remedy. 
Slavery was so formidably intrenched behind the ramparts of personal 
interests and prejudices, that to attack it with a view to its speedy 
overthrow, appeared to be attacking the very existence of the social 
order itself, and was characterized as the inevitable introduction of an 
anarchy worse in its consequences than the evil for which it seemed 
to be the only cure. But the folly and weakness of men have been the 
illustrations of God's wisdom and power. Under the intluence of the 
most incomprehensible infatuation of wickedness, those who were most 
deeply interested in the perpetuation of slavery have taken away every 
motive for its further toleration. The spirit of American slavery, not 
content with its defences to be found in the laws of the States, the 
provisions of the Federal Constitution, the prejudices in favor of exist- 
ing institutions, and the fear of change, has taken arms against law, 
organized a bloody rebellion against the National Authority, made 
formidable war upon the Federal Union, and. in order to found an 
empire upon the corner-stone of slavery, threatens not only our exist- 
ence as a people, but the annihilation of the principles of free Christian 
Government ; and thus has rendered the continuance of negro slavery 
incompatible with the preservation of our own liberty and inde- 
pendence. 

In th3 struggle of the nation for existence against this powerful and 
wicked treason, the highest executive authorities have proclaimed the 
abolition of slavery within most of the rebel States, and decreed its 
exLiuction by mil'tary force. They have enlisted those formerly held 



412 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

as slaves to be soldiers in the national armies. They have taken 
measures to organize the labor of the freedmen, and instituted measures 
for their support aud government in their new condition. It is the 
President's declared policj^ not to consent to the reorganization of civil 
government within the seceded States upon any other basis than tliat 
of emancipation. In the loyal States where slaverj' has not been 
abolished, measures of emancipation, in different stages of progress, 
have been set on foot, and are near their consuuunatiou ; and proposi- 
tions for an amendment to the Federal Constitution, prohibiting slavery 
hi all the States and Territories, are now pending in the national Con- 
gress. So that, in our present sit\iation, the interests of peace and of 
social order are identified loith the success of the cause of eriiancipation. 
The difficulties which formerly seemed insurmountable, in the provi- 
dence of God, appear now to be almost removed. The most formidable 
remaining obstacle, we think, will be found to be the unwillingness of 
the human heart to see and accept the truth against the prejudices of 
habit and of interest, and to act towards those ^\ho have heretofore 
been degraded as slaves, with the charity of Christian principle in the 
necessary efforts to improve and elevate them. 

In view, therefore, of its former testimonies upon the subject, the 
General Assembly does hereby devoutly express its gratitude to 
Almighty God for having overruled the wickedness and calamities of 
the rebellion, so as to work out the deliverance of our country from the 
EVIL AND GUILT of slavery ; its earnest desire for the extirpation of 
slavery, as the root of bitterness from which has sprung rebellion, war, 
and bloodshed, and the long list of horrors that follow in their train : 
its earnest trust that the thorough removal of this prolific source of 
evil and harm will be speedily followed by the blessings of our 
Heavenly Father, the return of peace, union, and fraternity, and 
abounding prosperity to the whole land ; and recommend to all in our 
communion to labor honestly, earnestly, and unweariedly, in their 
respective spheres, for this glorious consummation, to whiclr human 
justice, Christian love, national peace aud prosperity, every earthly 
and every religious interest, combine to pledge them.* 

* It must be confessed that there is point and force in the biting sarcasm which 
flowed from the pen of Dr. Thornwell, and was "unanimously" uttered by the 
''Confederate General Assembly" in their Address to t\e Christian world, when, 
after expressing satisfaction with the act of 1845, to which they refer in the first part 
of ihe following extract, they then speak in the latter part of the prevalent, sentiment 
of the North and the actual condition of " the Northern section" of the Churcli : 



FEATURES OF THIS REPORT. 413 



FEATURES OF THIS REPORT. 



We have already occupied so much space with the gen- 
eral subject of this chapter, that our observations upon 
this report ought to be brief. A few things, however, 
call for special notice. 

1. It elicited an animated and somewhat protracted dis- 
cussion, which was opened by Judge Matthews, and par- 
ticipated in by many members, among them some of the 
more distinguished in the Assembly, both in the ministry 
and eldership. After full consideration, it was adopted 
with great unanimity ; some reports of the religious press 
said at the time, '' unanimously," but others report '' two or 
three faint noes" heard. These were supposed to bo from 
some of the ]>order slave States. 

2. Tlie historical sketch given of previous deliverances, 
specifies tho'e running from the earliest, 1787, down to 
that of ISl)'^ and from the latter extended extracts are 
embodied ; hut not the remotest allusion is made to tJie far- 
famed deliverance of 1Mb \ This is not at all remark- 

"The Presbvterian Cliurch in the United States has been enabled, by divine grace, 
to pursuo for the most part an eminently conservative, because a thoroughly Scrip- 
tural, p(/a.-y in relation to this delicate question. It has planted itself upon the word 
of God. and dtterly refused to make slaveholdinga term of communion. But though 
both sections are agreed as to this general principle, it is not to be disguised that the 
North cherishes a deep and settled autipathy to slavery itself, while the South is 
equally zealous in its defence. Recent events can have no other effect than to con- 
firm the antipathy on the one hand, and strengthen the attachment on the other. 
The Northern section of the Church stands in the awkward predicament of main- 
taining in one breath that slavery is an evil which ought to be abolished, and of 
asserting in the next that it is not a sin to be visited by exclusion from the commu- 
nion of the saints. The conaequenee is, that it plays partly into the hands of abo- 
U.tioidHt8,and partly into the hands of slaveholders, and ueakens its infhcence 
u-ifh both. It occupies the position of a prevaricating witness, whom neither party 
will trust. It would be better, therefore, for the moral pcwer of the Northern section 
of the Church, to get entirely quit of the- subject." While we admit the pointeduess 
of this arcasm, we abjure the strange logic of one who prided himself on his logical 
power, that every " evil" which ought to be removed from among men, should 
necesiarilvbe made a term of communion in the Church. 



414 THE CHUKCH AND SLAVERY. 

able, but it is very significant. Were tliere none so poor 
in the Assembly as to do that famous paper reverence ? 
Its distinguished author was there. He of course took 
part in the discussion. He of course, as always hereto- 
fore, eulogized the work of his hands. He suggested 
some verbal modifications of the report, as did one or two 
otliers, and they were jJ^'omptly and cheerfully accepted 
by the chairman of .the committee ; but nobody moved to 
insert a eulogy, or even an elegy, upon the deliverance of 
1845, the paper with w^hich the ivhole South had been 

" PERFECTLY COXTEXTED FOR SIXTEEN YEARS !" This is 

indeed significant ; it conveys an unmistakable lesson, and 
fully bears out the view we have already taken of this 
paper in previous pages. 

3. This report takes a position upon slavery, so far as 
terms are concerned, — and we suppose these terms mean 
Avhat they say, — which no other deliverance has ever 
taken. It speaks of " our continuance in this sin," refer- 
ring to the people at large. It also speaks of working out 
"the deliverance of our country from the evil and guilt 
of slavery." It is true that the paper of 1818 says the 
severest things of the system that any one could de- 
sire : things which, from the language used, would 
seem to imply "evil," "guilt," and "sin." We do not 
see how that language can mean any thing else, and it was 
probably not intended to convey any other meaning by 
those who used it. But the papei* of 1864 is the first in- 
stance of action by the General Assembly which has come 
squarely up to the mark and pronounced slavery, in terms, 
to be a " sin." This is, unquestionably, an advanced posi- 
tion. Words are things. And those who know the his- 
tory of discussion on this subject, especially in the Church, 
know that this is a point where contending parties have 
erected their breastworks and " made a stand." The mass, 



FEATUKES OF THIS EEPOET. 415 

indeed, of those who have opposed slavery at the Nortli, 
within the Churches, — and universally those who have 
claimed a monopoly of " conservative" sentiment and 
feeling,^— have persistently maintained, tliat Avhatever else 
was true of slavery as an " evil," it was improper to call 
it a " sin." That is the term which has met with especial 
reprobation. Some would tolerate almost any other hard 
word of the English language but that. To mystify the un- 
initiated, and to instruct the learned more clearly, the Latin 
has been brought in to help our jejune tongue ; and so, as 
we have all often heard, " Slavery is not a sin per se f and 
"is not a malum in se." But the paper of 1864, using a 
Saxon term which is often upon the lips of men, calls it 
"this SIN." 

As we are speaking of things simply from an historical 
stand-point, we are not called upon here either to condemn 
or to approve of this report, in its doctrines or terms, so far 
as to give our personal views of slavery. We shall do 
that in another chapter. We simply 7iovi note this as an 
advanced position, which no General Assembly has ever 
before taken. We presume the Assembly understood 
what they were about, and we presume they meant just 
vjhat they said. It is in that light significant of the times 
in which we live, when men can speak what they believe 
to be the truth, without the main effort being to seek to 
conciliate somebody who might otherwise be mortally 
offended. 

What the bearing of this feature of the report may be 
in the minds of the members of the Assembly, we of 
course do not know, any farther than may be gathered 
from the discussions, and not much light is there emitted 
upon the simple point in hand. Men differ about what 
slavery is, disagree in their definition of the system and of 
its nature, and probably members of the Assembly differ 



416 THE CIIUKCH AND SLAYEKT. 

about the judgment pronounced upon this point, calling 
slavery a " sin." Some may understand merely the system 
of slave lavas existing at the South ; some may understand 
the ijvactice of slavehokling under those laws, without 
whicli slavery is the merest abstraction ; some may include 
both ; and, according as each may understand the case, he 
may have voted in the Assembly, and may insist that his 
view is that which the body meant. This difference in 
men's reasons for a vote, and of the subject voted on, and 
as to what is the result of the decision, is not confined to 
slavery. It enters into all complex matters upon which 
men deliberate and act. 

Nor do we know, beyond the possibility of mistake, 
what the committee or its distinguished chairman meant 
by this language ; not because there is any obscurity in 
the terms employed, but because, in order to understand 
the exact meaning and intent of those who use them, we 
must know more fully the views of the system which, 
personally, they entertain. If we may judge, however, 
from the terms themselves, the meaning is clear and un- 
mistakable. The language of the committee is certainly 
clear. When they speak of " the present judgments" of 
God as having been " inflicted" (though not " solely") " in 
punishment for our continuance in this sin,''^ we cannot 
suppose for a moment they refer merely to the system of 
slave-laws at the South. There can be no actual sin with- 
out a sinner ; nor can " punishment" be " inflicted" for 
" this sin" or any other, except upon the sinner. Even 
Christ was, legally, a sinner. Much less can a person or a 
people be punished for a " continuance^'' in sin, unless tliey 
are personally in \\\<d practice of sin. But what practice 
can be meant in this case ? The upholding of slave-laws ? 
This would be perfectly ridiculous, unless there were some 
person held in slavery under them, and some other person 



FEATURES OF THIS EEPORT. 41 Y 

holding him there. This is the practice which we sn^ypose 
the committee meant, or their chairman who drew the re- 
port ; and the " continuance" of this practice, we suppose^ 
is the " sin" meant, for whose " punishment" God's 
"present judgments" are being "inflicted." 

There may be those at the South who are not person- 
ally in the practice of slavery, who yet connive at or 
approve of the slave-laws, and of the practice under them 
in which others are involved ; and, so far forth, they are 
concerned in "this sin." There are also those at the 
North in the same category ; not practising slavery, but 
conniving at the slave-laws and the practice of others 
under them. And as the report regards " the present 
judgments" as having come upon the whole people, as too 
manifestly is the case, the whole people are suflering this 
" punishment." The slavery of the South is in a sense a 
national thing, and involves, through its political and 
moral bearings, national responsibilities. For "our con- 
tinuance in this sin," as a nation, we are as a nation pun- 
ished. But what, as a nation, do we continue to approve, 
connive at, tolerate, or uphold, and for which we are pim- 
ished ? Can it be merely a system of laws, a bundle of 
rigorous legalities ; or, is it not these laws and the practice 
of the people icho hold slaves under them f 

We of course readily admit the wide difierence between 
^lave-laiDs and slaveholding. We can imagine a set of 
legislators concocting a system of laws, without there 
being a slave or a slaveholder ; a system under which they 
intend to introduce, at a future time, their chattels, when 
they can kidnap them. But in the system itself^ without 
victiuis, however rigorous the laws, there would be no 
sin, although the legislators, from the mere intention of 
putting t^lavery in practice, might be at the time great sin- 
ners. We can understand, too, that in fact, there is, and 



418 , THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

always may have been, a great difference at the South 
among slaveholders ; some approving the whole system, 
laws, practice, and all, and not wishing a change ; others 
di-ai)[)roving of certain features in slave-laws, and either 
acquiescing or striving to have them altered, but continuing 
the i^ractice of slavery from choice ; others condemning 
thvi hiws and the practice but, seeing their way more or 
less hedged up toward emancipation, continuing still in the 
practice ; though we think tlie number in this latter classi- 
lication has for a long time been very small and growing 
beautifully less. These distinctions are palpable and real ; 
and in judging of individuals, they cannot be properly 
left out of the account. So, also, we can imagine such a 
change to occur in the system at the South, as a possible 
thing, as would divest the laws of their odious features, 
and leave little or nothino; else but the relation of master 
and slave, and the practice of slavery ; though, unhappily, 
with all the ameliorating influences of Christianity (and 
we have the word of Dr. Stiles for it, that they are a people 
of purer and simpler Christianity than any other), the sys- 
tem of slave-laws has continued from generation to gen- 
eration much the same. 

But when we would speak of and characterize slavery 
as an institution, as a thing standing out before all men, 
we must take it as a ichole and take it just as it is. Nor 
is it material, practically, how it may be verhally defined ; 
a point on which logomachy has run wild, and in which 
no two men have ever agreed. What the system^ as such^ 
is, can admit of no doubt. To speak of it properly, as an 
institution, all its elements must be embraced ; the laws 
just as they are, and the practice just as it is, embracing 
the persons held and the persons holding them. And 
when the committee reported, and the Assembly enacted, 
that we were punished *' for our continumcj in tJiis sin,^^ 



FEATURES OP THIS EEPOET. 419 

we understand them to cover by these terms all that makes 
the institution what it is, K so, we regard it in this sense, 
and hy these terms, as declaring what no General Assem- 
bly has ever before declared. In no sense has any pre- 
vious Assembly ever declared slavery to be a " sin."* 
4. It is the judgment of the Assembly that slavery is 

* Some rather curious things were developed in the discussion upon this report 
in the Assembly. Dr. Eice is reported as saying : " He now expected to vote for 
the paper. The war had not taugJit him any thing at all about slavery. He had 
been accustomed to investigate the subject for a long time." " He never had 
believed that slavery wa« of itself a sin. He regarded it as an evil, and considered 
it a sin to undertake to perpetuate slavery." " ZTe had., since the war, learned 
nothing new.'''' " It had been assumed that the act of 1S45 was inconsistent with 
that of 1818. This he denied. It was not inconsistent with that act. He proceeded 
to explain the act of 1845, and showed that it teas less proslavery than, that of 
1818. Why do not brethren read the whole document before they talk about it as a 
proslavery paper?" — Philadelphia Presbyterian. (1.) Although Dr. Eice may 
"never" have "believed that slavery was of itself a sin,'''' yet he voted for Judge 
Matthews's paper, which pronounces it " this sin." Although the war may not havo 
" taught him any thing at all about slavery," as his speech would indicate, yet his 
vote shows that he took with others an advanced, position in a. deliverance upon 
slavery. Some men advance without knowledge, and some without knowing it. 
Dr. Rice may have done both. (2.) Dr. Eice declares that the paper of 1845 is " less 
proslavery than that of 1818." If this statement should ever run the blockade with 
other contraband goods, we should be curious to know how it would be received in 
Dixie. What wlU " our Southern brethren" say, when the}- hear that it has been 
aflSrmed in the General Assembly, of the act of 1845, with which they had been 
'■'■perfectly contented for sixteen years," — and by the author of that act, who, they 
declare " has been distinguished as a defender of slavery and the South, and as an 
antagonist of the antislavery party," — that the said act of 1845 is " less proslavery 
than that of 1818 !" What will " our Southern brethren" say ? If any of them have 
become, by the influence of the rebellion, addicted to what was currently reported 
in the early stage of it, of the late Major-General Bishop Polk, they may possibly do 
what "our army did in Flanders!" (3.) "He had, since the war, learned nothing 
new,''' says Dr. Eice. Most men in this nation have no doubt learned a great many 
things '■ since the war" began. We hear this on every hand, from the President of 
the United States down. It is our humble opinion that the whole nation has learned 
much ; has been led along in paths that they knew not of, in God's wonderful provi- 
dence; and that the people will learn much more before "the war" is over. But 
Dr. Eice is perhaps the one exception, essential to prove the rule. If he has 
" learned nothing new" thus far, he probably will not hereafter. Some men are 
never willing to admit that they have any thing to learn, that they can be taught by 
anybody, or by any course of events. Is he one of them ? Perhaps he is self- 
deceived on matters concerning " the war," as upon slavery, and takes a position 
here, too, in advance of the one he formerly was understood to hold, without being 
aware of it. 

19 



420 THE CHURCH AND SLAVERY. 

" the root of bitterness from which has sprung rebellion, 
war, and bloodshed, and the long list of horrors that fol- 
low in their train;" that hence, as it threatens our 
national existence, its continuance is " incompatible with 
the preservation of our liberty and independence ;" and 
hence it urges all to efforts to remove it, regarding " the 
interests oi peace and of social order identified with the 
success of emancipation." 

5. It virtually approves of and indorses the measures 
of the Government, and the movements in certain Border 
States, looking to the entire removal of slavery from the 
land, in the exercise of both military and civil authority, 
and of the restoration of our national Union on the basis 
of universal freedom ; regarding these things as calling for 
" gratitude to Almighty God." 

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 

We truly rejoice in this deliverance. We doubt not that 
Dr. Hodge in the Repertory is substantially correct in say- 
ing : " There cannot be a doubt that the sentiments of this 
paper are the sentiments of the Presbyterian Church in 
these United States." He of course means in the loyal 
States ; and in this sense we say he is substantially cor- 
rect : we wish we could say he is entirely so. But there 
are some Presbyterians in some of the Border States whose 
souls are filled with mourning and lamentation at this act 
of the Assembly; and there is one ''religious" journal 
claiming to be the organ of the only true Presbyterians left 
in the whole land, whose wrath has taken new fire from 
the fuel here furnished. 

We can, without qualification, adopt another statement 
of the Repertory^ which says : *' We think it may safely 
be assumed, that the report unanimously adopted by the 
Assembly, expresses the opinions and feelings of the vast 



TE DEUM LAUDAMUS. 421 

majority of the people in the Northern, Western, and 
Middle States. In this view of the matter, we regard the 
adoption of such a paper a matter of great public impor- 
tance. It is the revelation of a spirit of loyalty, and of 
devotion to the great cause for which the nation is now 
contending as for its life. In this view, it is matter for 
gratitude and encouragement." 

It is of rather small consequence what that small frag- 
ment of the Church may think who groan over this deliver- 
ance. The mass of the loyal people, we verily believe, are 
convinced, after what slavery has attempted in this rebel- 
lion, that its death is just and its doom is near. We are, 
therefore, especially rejoiced, that the General Assembly 
of the Presbyterian Church, by an almost unanimous vote, 
has so explicitly put itself upon the record ; has declared 
for universal emancipation, as essential to " peace," " social 
order," " liberty and independence ;" and has pledged itself 
and the people to sustain the Government in its measures 
for the restoration of our National Unity, 

TO GOD BE THE PEAISE ! 



422 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 



CHAPTER XL 

KENTUCKY OPINIONS.— THE PAST AND THE PRESENT. 

As no Border State has at any time exhibited', among 
the religious portion of its community, more decided con- 
victions upon Slavery, ^yro and con^ than Kentucky, we 
propose in this chapter to present some of the views ex- 
pressed against the system, at different periods, by some 
of her eminent men and religious bodies. 

That which claims the pre-eminence, on account of the 
sentiments announced, the source whence they emanate, 
and the time of their utterance, is an Address issued in 
the year 1835. It is from a Committee of the Synod of 
the Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, to the members of 
this Church throughout the State. 

The authority under which it was issued is as follows, 
as found in the minutes of the Synod : " For the purpose 
of promoting harmony and concert of action on this im- 
portant subject, the Synod do Kesolve^ That a Committee 
of ten be appointed, to consist of an equal number of 
ministers and elders, whose business it shall be to digest 
and prepare a plan for the moral and religious instruction 
of our slaves, and for their future emancipation, and to 
report such plan to the several Presbyteries within our 
bounds for their consideration and approval." 

It is entitled : " An Address to the Presbyterians of 
Kentucky, proposing a Plan for the Instruction and 
Emancipation of their Slaves, by a Committee of the 
Synod of Kentucky." 

The Committee were: "Messrs. John Brown, John 



ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 423 

Green, Thomas P. Smith, J. R. Alexander, and Charles 
Cunningham, laymen; and Revs. Wm. L. Breckinridge, 
James K. Burch, Robert Stuart, Nathan H. Hall, and 
John C. Young, ministers." 

Some of these persons yet survive. Dr. Young, whose 
name appears last on the hst, was at that time President 
of Centre College, the post which Dr. William L. Breck- 
inridge, the first on the list of ministers, now fills. This 
eloquent and pungent address was from the pen of Dr. 
Youno;, than whom no man ever stood higher in the esteem 
of the Presbytei-ian Church in Kentucky. Though long, 
we bespeak for it a careful perusal. If there is to be found 
in the English language a more decided condemnation of 
slavery as a system, we have not met with it. We have 
only to suggest to the reader that he constantly bear in 
mind that he is not reading a paper wliich emanated from 
Boston, and was designed for the latitude of New Eng- 
land, but rather an address written in Kentucky, and, under 
the authority of the Synod, made to the Presbyterians of 
the State. The chief portions of this Address are as 
follows : « 

Dear Brethren— The will of Synod has made it our duty to lay 
before you "a plan for the moral and religious instruction," as well as 
for "the future emancipation," of the slaves under your care. We feel 
the responsibility and difficulty of the duty to which the Church has 
called UE5, yet the character of those whom we address strongly 
encourages us to hope that our labor will not be in vain. You profess 
to be governed by the principles and precepts of a holy religion ; you 
recognize the fact that you have yourselves " been made free" by the 
blood of the Son of God, and you believe that you have been imbued 
with a portion of the same spirit which was in " Him who, though He 
was rich, yet for our sakes became poor." When we point out to such 
persons their duty, and caU upon them to fulfil it, our appeal cannot 
be altogether fruitless. But we have a still stronger ground of en- 
couragement in our firm conviction that the cause which we advocate 
is the cause of God, and that His assistance will make it finaUy prevail. 



424 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

May He who " hears the cry of the poor and needy," and who has 
commanded to let the " oppressed go free," give to each one of us wis- 
dom to know our duty and strength to fulfil it. 

We earnestly entreat you, brethren, to receive our communication in 
the same spirit of kindness in which it is made, and permit neither pre- 
judice nor interest to close your minds against the reception of truth, or 
steel your hearts against the convictions of conscience. Yery soon it 
will be a matter of no moment whether we have had large or small 
possessions on the earth; but it will be of infinite importance 
whether or not we have conscientiously sought out the will of 
God and done it. 

We all admit that the system of slavery which exists among us is 
not right. Why then do we assist in perpetuating it? Why do we 
make no serious efforts to terminate it ? Is it not because our per- 
ception of its sinfulness is very feeble and indistinct, while our percep- 
tion of the difficulties of instructing and emancipaxing our slaves is 
strong and clear ? As long as we beheve that slavery, as it exists 
among us, is a light evil in the sight of G-od, so long will we feel inclined 
to pronounce every plan that can be devised for its termination inexpedient 
or impracticable. Before then we unfold our plan, we wish to examine 
the system and try it by the principles which religion teaches. If it shall 
not be thus proved to be an abomination in the sight of a just and holy 
God, we shall not solicit your concurrence in any plan for its abolition. 
But if, when fairly examined, it shall be seen to be a thing which God 
abhors, we may surely expect that no trifling amount of trouble or loss 
will deter you from lending your efforts to its extermination. 

Slavery is not tlie same all the world over. And to ascertain its 
character in any particular State or country, we must examine the consti- 
tuents and effects of the kind of slavery which there exists. The system, as 
it exists among us and is constituted by our laws, consists of three dis- 
tinct parts : a deprivation of the right ofpropertij, a deprivation of personal 
liberi]/, and a deprivation of personal security. In all its parts it is mani- 
festly a violation of the laws of God, as revealed by the light of nature 
as well as by the light of revelation. 

1, A part of our system of slavery consists in depriving humanheings 
of the right to acquire and hold propertij. Does it need any proof to show 
that God has given to all human beings a right to the proceeds of their 
own labor ? The heathen acknowledge it ; every man feels it. The Bible 
is full of denunciations against those who withhold from others the fruits 
of their exertions, " Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrigh- 



ADDHESS OF THE SYNOD. 425 

teousness, and his chambers by wrong ; that useth his neighbor's service 
without wages, and givethhim not for his work." Jer. xxii. 13. See also 
jfames v. 4; Lev. xix. 13 ; Deut. xxiv. 14, 15. Does an act which is wrong 
when done once and towards one individual, become right because it is 
practised daily and hourly and towards thousands ? Does the Just and 
holy One frown the less upon injustice because it is systematically prac- 
tised, and is sanctioned by the laws of the land ? If the chicanery of law 
should enable us to escape the payment of our debts, or if a human 
legislature should discharge us from our obhgations to our creditors, 
could we, without deep guilt, withhold from our neighbors that which 
is their due ? No ; we all recognize the principle that the laws of tlio 
God of nature can never be repealed by any legislature under heaven. 
These laws will endure when the statutes of earth shall have 
crumbled with the parchments on which they are enrolled; and by these 
laws we know that we must be judged in the day in which the desti- 
nies of our souls shall bo determined. 

2. The deprivatiun of personal liberty forms another part of our system 
of slavery. Not only has the slave no right to his wife and children, 
he has no right even to himself. His very body, his muscles, his bones, 
his flesh, are all the property of another. The movements of his limbs 
are regulated by the will of a master. He may be sold like a beast 
of the field ; he may be transported in chains like a felon. Was the 
blood of our Revolution shed to establish a false principle, when it was 
poured out in defence of the assertion that "all men are created equal;" 
that " tliey are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable 
rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness ?" If it be a violation of the rights of nature to deprive men of 
their political freedom, the injustice is surely much more flagrant when 
we rob them of personal liberty. The condition of a subject is enviable 
compared with the condition of a slave. We are shocked at the despotism 
exercised over the Poles. But theirs is a pohtical yoke, and is light com- 
pared with the heavy personal yoke that bows down the two milUons 
of our colored countrymen. Does European injustice lose its foul char^ 
acter when practised with aggravations in America? 

Still further, the deprivation of personal liberty is so complete, that it 
destroys the rights of conscience. Our system, as estabhshed by law, 
arms the master with power to prevent his slave even from worshipping 
God according to the dictates of his own conscience. The owner of hu- 
man beings among us may legally restrain them from assembling to hear 
the instructions of divine truth, or even from ever uniting their hearts 



426 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

and voices in social prayer and praise to Him who created them. God 
alone is Lord over the conscience. Yet our system, defrauding alike 
our Creator and our slaves, confers upon men this prerogative of Deity. 
Argument is unnecesary to show the guilt and madness of such a sys- 
tem. And do we not participate in its criminality if we uphold it? 

3. The deprkatioa of personal security is the remaining constituent of 
our system of slavery. The time was, in our own as well as in other 
countries, when even the life of the slave was absolutely in the hands of 
the master. It is not so now among us. The life of a bondman cannot 
be taken with impunity. But the law extends its protection no further. 
Cruelty may be carried to any extent, provided life be spared. Man- 
gling, imprisonment, starvation, every species of torture may be iuflicted 
upon him, and he has no redress. But not content with thus laying the 
body of the slave defenceless at the foot of the master, our system pro- 
ceeds still further, and strips him in a great measure of all protection 
against the inhumanity of any other white man who may choose to 
maltreat him. The laws prohibit the evidence of a slave against a 
white man from being received in a court of justice. So that wan- 
tonness and cruelty may be exercised by any man with impunity upon 
these unfortunate people, provided none witness it but those of their 
own color. In describing such a condition, we may well adopt the 
language of sacred writ: "Judgment is turned away backward, and 
justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity 
cannot enter. And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there 
was no judgment." 

Such is the essential character of our slavery. Without any 
crime on the part of its unfortunate subjects, they are deprived for life, 
and their posterity after them, of the right to property, of the right to 
li.berty, and of the right to personal security. These odious features 
are not the excrescences upon the system, they are the system itself; 
they are its essential constituent parts. And can any man believe that 
such a thing as this is not sinful ; that it is not hated by God, and 
ought not to be abhorred and abolished by man? 

But there are certain effects, springing naturally and necessarily out 
of such a system, which must also be considered in forming a proper 
estimate of its character. 

1. Its most striking effect is to deprave and degrade its subjects, by re- 
moving from them the strongest natural checks to human corrujAion. As 
there are certain laws impressed upon the elements, by which God 
works to preserve the beauty and order of the material creation, so there 



ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 427 

are certain principles of human nature by which he works to save the 
moral world from ruin. These principles operate on every man- in his 
natural condition of freedom — restraining his vicious propensities and 
regulating his deportment. The fires of innate depravity, which, if 
permitted to burst forth, would destroy the individual and desolate 
society, are thus measurably repressed, and the decencies and enjoy- 
ments of life are preserved. The wisdom and goodness of God are thus 
seen in implanting in man a sense of character, a desire for property, a 
love for distinction, a thirst for power, and a zeal for family advance- 
ment. All these feelings working in the minds of individuals, though 
not unmixed with evil, combine to promote their own happiness and 
the welfare of communities; and they are inferior, in the good which 
they produce, only to those high religious principles which constitute 
the image of God in the soul of man. The presence of these principles 
only can compensate for the absence of those natural feelings. When- 
ever, then, these natural feelings are crushed or eradicated in any human 
being, he is stripped of the nobler attributes of humanity, and is de- 
graded into a creature of mere appetite and passion. His sensuality is 
the only cord by which you can draw him. His hopes and fears all 
concentrate upon the objects of his appetites. He sinks far down towards 
a level with the beast of the field, and can be moved to action only by 
such appeals as influence the lunatic and the brute. This is the con- 
dition to which slavery reduces the great mass of those who wear its 
brutalizing yoke. Its effects upon their souls are far worse than its 
effects upon their bodies. Character, property, distinction, power, and 
family respectability, are all withdrawn from the reach of the slave. 
No object is presented to excite and cultivate those higher feelings 
whose exercise would repress his passions and regulate his appetites. 
Thus slavery deranges and ruins the moral machinery of man; it cuts 
the sinews of the soul ; it extracts from human nature the salt that 
purifies and preserves it, and leaves it a corrupting mass of appetite and 
passion. 

2. It dooms thousands of human beings to hopeless ignorance. The acqui- 
sition of knowledge requires exertion ; and the man who is to continue 
through life in bondage has no strong motive of interest to induce such 
exertion ; for knowledge is not valuable to him, as to one who eats the 
fruits of his own labors. The acquisition of knowledge requires also 
facilities of books, teachers, and time, which can be only adequately 
furnished by masters : and those who desire to perpetuate slavery will 
never furnish thes. facilities. If slaves are educated, it must involve 
19* 



428 KE^TTUOKY OPINIONS. 

some outlay on the part of the master. And what rehance for such a 
sacrifice can be placed on the generosity and virtue of one wlio looks on 
them as his property, and who has been trained to consider every 
dollar expended on them as lost, unless it contributes to increase their 
capacity for yielding him valuable service ? He will have them taught 
•to work, and will ordinarily feed and clothe them, so as to enable them 
to perform their work to advantage. But more than this it is inconsist- 
ent with our knowledge of human nature to expect that he will do for 
them. The present state of instruction among this race answers exactly 
to what we might thus naturally anticipate. Throughout our whole 
land, so far as we can learn, there is but one school in which, during 
the week, slaves can be taught. The light of three or four Sabbath- 
schools is seen glimmering through the darkness that covers the black 
population of a whole State. Here and there a family is found where 
humanity and religion impel the master, mistress, or children, to the 
laborious task of private instruction. Great honor is due to those en- 
gaged in this philanthropic and self-denying course, and their reward 
shall be received in the day when even a cup of cold water, given from 
Christian motives, shall secure a recompense. But, after all, what is the 
utmost amount of instruction given to slaves ? Those who enjoy the 
most of it, are fed with but the crumbs of knowledge which fall from 
their master's table — they are clothed with the mere shreds and tatters 
of learning. 

Nor is it to be expected that this state of things will become better, 
unless it is determined that slavery shall cease. The impression is almost 
universal that intellectual elevation unfits men for servitude, and renders 
it impossible to retain them in this condition. This impression is un- 
questionably correct. The weakness and ignorance of their victims is 
the only safe foundation on which injustice and oppression can rest. 
And the effort to keep in bondage men to whom knowledge has im- 
parted power, would be like the insane attempt of the Persian tyrant to 
chain the waves of the sea, and whip its boisterous waters into submis- 
sion. We may as soon expect to fetter the winds, seal up the clouds, 
or extinguish the fires of the volcano, as to prevent enlightened minda 
from recovering their natural condition of freedom. Hence, in some of 
our States laws have been enacted prohibiting, under severe penalties, 
the instruction of the blacks; and even where such laws do not exist, 
there are formidable numbers who oppose with deep hostility every 
efibrt to enlighten the mind of the negfvj. These men are determined 
that slavery shall be perpetuated, and they know that their imiversal 



ADDRESS OP THE SYNOD. 429 

education must be followed bj their universal emancipation. They are 
then acting wisely, according to the wisdom of this world, when they 
deny education to slaves ; they are adopting a measure necessary to 
secure their determined purpose. It is, however, policy akin to that 
wliich once induced the ruflSan violators of female chastity to cut out 
the tongue and cut off the hands of their victim, to disable her from 
uttering or writing their names. She had to be maimed, or they would 
be brought to justice. It is such, policy as the robber exhibits, who 
silences in death the voices that might accuse him, and buries in the 
grave the witnesses of his crimes. He is determined to pursue his 
occupation, and his safety in it requires that he should not indulge in 
the weakness of keeping a conscience. How horrible must be that sys- 
tem which, in the opinion of even its strongest advocates, demands, as 
the necessary condition of its existence, that knowledge should be shut 
out from the minds of those who live under it ; that they should bo 
reduced as nearly as possible to the level of brutes or living machines ; 
that the powers of their souls should be crushed. Let each one of us 
ask, can such a system be aided or even tolerated without deep crimi- 
nahty ? 

3. It deprives its subjects in a great measure of the privileges of the Gospel 
You may be startled at this statement, and feel disposed to exclaim, 
" Our slaves are always permitted and even encouraged to attend upon 
the ordinances of worship." But a candid and close examination will 
show the correctness of our charge. The privileges of the Gospel, as 
enjoyed by the white population in this land, consist in free access to 
the Scriptures, a regular gospel ministry, and domestic means of grace. 
Neither of these is, to any extent worth naming, enjoyed by slaves, as 
a moment's consideration will satisfactorily show. The law, as it is here, 
does not prevent free access to the Scriptures ; but ignorance, the natural 
result of their condition, does. The Bible is before them, but it is to 
them a sealed book. " The light shineth in the darkness, but the dark- 
ness comprehendeth it not." Like the paralytic who lay for years by 
the pool of Bethesda, the waters of healing are near them, but no kind 
hand enables them to try their efficacy. Very few enjoy the advantages 
of a regular gospel ministry. They are, it is true, permitted generally, 
and often encouraged, to attend upon the ministrations specially de- 
signed for their masters. But the instructions communicated on such 
occasions are above the level of their capacities. They listen as to 
prophesyings in an unknown tongue. The preachers of their own color 
are still farther from ministering to their spiritual wants, as these impart 



430 KENTUCKY OPINIOK^S. 

to them, not of their knowledge, but their ignorance ; they heat tlieir 
animal feelings, but do not kindle a flame of intelligent devotion. It 
has been proposed by some zealous and devoted friends of the colored 
race, to supply the deficiency of gospel ministrations among them by 
the employment of suitable missionaries, who may labor exclusively 
among them. We need not here speculate on the probable results of 
such a scheme, if carried into effect in a community where there is no 
intention to emancipate ; for before there is found among us benevolence 
enough to adopt and execute it on a scale large enough to effect any 
highly valuable purpose, the community will be already ripe for meas- 
ures of emancipation. Such a sj^irit of kindness towards this unfortunate 
race as this scheme presupposes, can never coexist with a determination 
to keep them in hopeless bondage. Further, there are no houses of 
worship exclusively devoted to the colored population. The galleries 
of our own churches, which are set apart to their use, would not hold 
the tenth part of their numbers ; and even these few seats are in general 
thinly occupied So that, as a body, it is evident that our slaves do not 
enjoy the public ordinances of religion. Domestic means of grace are 
still more rare among them. Here and there a family is found whose 
servants are taught to bow with their masters around the fireside altar. 
But their peculiarly adverse circumstances, combined with the natural 
alienation of their hearts from God, render abortive the slight efforts of 
most masters to induce their attendance on the domestic services of 
religion. And if we visit the cottages of those slaves who live apart 
from their masters, where do we find them reading their Bibles and 
kneeling together before a throne of mercy? Family ordinances of 
rehgion are almost unknown among the blacks. We do not wish to 
exaggerate the description of this deplorable religious condition of our 
colored population. We know that instances of true piety are frequently 
found among them ; but these instances we all know to be awfully dis- 
proportionate to their numbers, and to the extent of those means of 
grace which exist around them. When the missionaries of the cross 
enter a heathen land, their hope of fully Christianizing it rests upon the 
fact that they can array and bring to bear upon the minds of these 
children of ignorance and sin all those varied means which God has 
appointed for the reformation of man. But while the system of slavery 
continues among us, these means can never be efficiently and fully 
employed for the conversion of the degraded sons of Africa. Yet 
" God hath made them of one blood" with ourselves; hath provided 
for them the same redemption • hath in His providence cast soiils upon 



ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 431 

our care, and hath clearly intimated to us the doom of him who " seeth 
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from 
him." If by our example, our silence, or our sloth, we perpetuate a 
system which paralyzes our hands when we attempt to convey to them 
the bread of life, and which inevitably consigns the great mass of them 
to unending perdition, can we be guiltless in the sight of Him who hath 
made us stewards of His grace ? 

4. This sybtem licenses and produces great cruelty. The law places the 
whip in the hands of the master, and its use, provided he avoid destroy- 
ing life, is limited only by his own pleasure. Considering the absolute 
power with which our people are armed, it must be acknowledged that 
the treatment of their dependents is, in general, singularly humane. 
Many circumstances operate here to mitigate the rigors of perpetual 
servitude ; and it is probably the fact that no body of slaves have been 
ever better fed, better clothed, and less abused, than the slaves of Ken- 
tucky. Still, they have no security for their comfort but the humanity 
and generosity of men who have been trained to regard them not as 
brethren, but as property. Humanity and generosity are at best poor 
guarantees for the protection of those who cannot assert their rights, 
and over whom law throws no protection. Our own condition we 
would feel to be wretched indeed, if no law secured us from the insults 
and maltreatment even of our equals. But superiority naturally begets 
contempt, and contempt generates maltreatment, for checking which 
we can rely not on virtue, but only on law. There are in our land hun- 
dreds of tliousands clothed, with arbitrary powers over those whom 
they are educated to regard as their property, as the instruments of 
their will, as creatures beneath their sympathy, devoid of all the feel- 
ings which dignify humanity, and but one remove above cattle. la it 
not certain that many of these hundreds of thousands will inflict out- 
rages on their despised dependents ? There are now in our whole land 
two millions of human beings exposed, defenceless, to every insult and 
every injury, short of maiming or death, which their fellow-men may 
choose to inflict. They sufier all that can be inflicted by wanton caprice, 
by grasping avarice, by brutal lust, by malignant spite, and by insane 
anger. Their happiness is the sport of every whim and the prey of 
every passion that may occasionally or habitually infest the master's 
bosom. If we could calculate the amount of woe endured by ill-treated 
slaves, it would overwhelm every compassionate heart — it would move 
even the obdurate to sympathy. There is also a vast sum of sufiering 
inflicted upon the slave by humane masters, as a punishment for that 



432 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

idleness and misconduct which slavery naturally produces. The ordi- 
nary motives to exertion in men are withdrawn from the slave. Some 
unnatural stimulus must then be substituted, and the whip presents 
itself as the readiest and most efficient. But the appHcation of the 
whip to produce industry, is hke the application of the galvanic fluid to 
produce muscular exertion. The effect is powerful indeed, out momen- 
tary ; and, if often appUed, it is exhaustive and destructive to the system. 
It can never be used as a substitute for the healthful and agreeable 
nervous stimulus with which nature has supplied us. Equally vain is 
the attempt to supj^ly by the whip the deficiency of natural motives to 
exertion ; it produces misery and degradation. Yet, inadequate as is 
this substitute, it is the best that can be had ; it must be used while 
the system lasts : the condition of the slave is unnatural, and his treat- 
ment must correspond to his condition. We are shocked to hear of 
epicures who cause the animals on which they feast to be whipped to 
death, that their flesh may be more delicate and dehcious to the taste. 
"We feel it to be disgusting and intolerable cruelty thus to inflict pain 
even upon a beast, merely to satisfy the cravings of luxury ; and shall 
we excuse ourselves if a desire for ease or wealth leads us to sanction, 
sustain, and assist in perpetuating a system which, as long as it lasts, 
must lacerate the bodies and grind down the feelings of millions of 
rational and immortal beings ? 

Brutal stripes, and all the varied kinds of personal indignities, are 
not the only species of cruelty which slavery licenses. The law does 
not recognize the family relations of a slave, and extends to hun no 
protection in the enjoyment of domestic endearments. The members 
of a slave family may be forcibly separated, so that they shall never 
more meet until the final judgment. And cupidity often induces the 
masters to practise what the law allows. Brothers and sisters, parents 
and children, husbands and wives, are torn asunder, and permitted to 
see each other no more. These acts are daily occurring in the midst of us. 
The shrieks and the agony often witnessed on such occasions proclaim 
with a trumpet-tongue the iniquity and cruelty of our system.. The 
cry of these sufferers goes up to the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 
There is not a neighborhood where these heart-rending scenes are not dis- 
played. There is not a village or road that does not behold the sad 
procession of manacled outcasts, whose chains and mournful counte- 
nances tell that they are exiled by force from all that their hearts held 
dear. Our Church, years ago, raised its voice of solemn warning 
against this flagrant violation of every principle of mercy, justice, i\nd 



ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. ^< 33 

humanitj. Tet we blush to announce to you and to the world that 
tliis warning has been often disregarded, even by those who hold to 
our communion. Cases have occurred in our own denomination where 
professors of the religion of mercy have torn the mother from her chil- 
dren, and sent her into a merciless and returnless exile. Yet acts of 
discipline have rarely followed such conduct. Far be it from us to 
ascribe to our people generally a participation in tliese deeds, or a 
sympathy with them; they abhor and loathe them. But while the 
system, of which these cruelties are the legitimate offspring, is tolerated 
among us, it is exceedingly difficult to inflict punishment upon their 
perpetrators. If we commence discipline for amj acts which the laws 
of slavery sanction, where shall we stop ? "What principle is there 
which will justify us in cutting off a twig or branch of this poison-tree 
that will not, if carried fairly out, force us to proceed and hew down its 
trunk and dig up its roots ? These cruelties are only the loathsome 
ulcers which show corruption in the blood and rottenness in the bones 
of this system. They may be bound up and mollified with ointment ; 
they may be hidden from the sight ; but they cannot be entirely re- 
moved until there is a thorough renovation within, f Our Churches can- 
not be entirely pure, even from the grosser pollutions of slavery, untU 
we are willing to pledge ourselves to the destruction of the whole 
system. 

The voice of the civilized world has been lifted up in execration of 
the despot who recently dragged numbers of the unhappy Poles from 
their country, separating husbands and wives, parents and children. 
But they are his property by the same tenure by which we hold our 
slaves ; and has he not a right, he may exclaim, to do as he pleases 
with his own? ISTay, the security and peace of his dominions require 
this cruelty. He is not willing to relinquish the property which he inher- 
ited; and he may tell us, and tell us truly, that it cannot be retained in 
safety without the adoption of these horrid measures. Can we con- 
demn liis conduct, and yet justify our system of slavery? or can we 
condemn both, and yet be guiltless if we use no efficient exertions to 
torminate these cruelties among us ? 

5. It produces general licentiousness among the slaves. Marriage, as a 
civil ordinance^ they cannot enjoy. Qur laws do not recognize this 
relation as existing among them, and of course do not enforce by any 
sanction the observance of its duties. Indeed, until slavery " waxeth 
old and tendeth to decay," there cannot be any legal recognition of 
the marriage rite, or the enforcement of the consequent duties. For 



434 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

all regulations on this subject would limit the master's absolute right 
of property in his slaves. In his disposal of them, he would no longer 
be at liberty to consult merely his own interest. He could no longer 
separate the wife and husband to suit the convenience or interest of 
the purchaser, no matter how advantageous might be the terms offered. 
And as the wife and husband do not always belong to the same owner, 
and are not often wanted by the same purchaser, their duties to each 
other would thus, if enforced by law, frequently conflict with the inter. 
ests of the master. Hence all the marriage that could ever be allowed 
to them would be a mere contract, voidable at the master's pleasure. 
Their present quasi marriages are just such contracts, and are contin- 
ually thus voided. They are in this way brought to consider the mat- 
rimonial engagement as a thing not binding, and they act accordingly. 
Many of them are united without even the sham and forceless cere- 
mony which is sometimes used. They, to use their own phraseology, 
"take up with" each other, and live together as long as it suits their 
mutual convenience or inclination. This wretched system of concu- 
binage inevitably produces revolting licentiousness. This feature in 
the slave character is so striking, as to induce in many minds the idea 
that the negro is naturally repugnant to the restraints of matrimony. 
From the ample and repeated testimonies, however, of such travellers 
as Park and Lander, who have visited this race in their native land, 
we learn that their character in this respect is in Africa the reverse of 
what it is here ; that they regard the marriage rite with remarkable 
sacredness, and scrupulously fulfil its duties. We are then assured by 
the most unquestionable testimony that their licentiousness is the 
necessary result of our system, which, destroying the force of the mar- 
riage rite, and thus in a measure degrading all the connection between 
the sexes into mere concubinage, solicits wandering desire, and leads 
to extensive profligacy. Our familiarity with this consequence of 
slavery prevents us from regarding it with that horror which it would 
under other circumstances inspire. The sacredness of the marriage rite 
is the buhvark of morality, the corner-stone of domestic happiness. It 
is the foundation on which alone the whole fabric of an organized and 
virtuous community can be built. On it must rest all those family 
relations which bind together, and cement society. Without it, we 
might herd together hke brutes, but we could no longer live together 
as human beings. There would be no families, no strong ties of 
kindred, no domestic endearments softening the manners and curbing 
the passions. Selfish, sensual, and unrestrained, man would exercise 



ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 435 

his reason only to minister to the more grovelling propensities of his 
nature. Any set of men will approximate to this condition just in pro- 
portion to tlieir approximation to the practical abolition of matrimonial 
restraints. And certainly never, in any civihzed country, has respect 
for these restraints been more nearly obliterated than it has been among 
our blacks. Thus the working of our system of slavery diffuses a 
moral pestilence among its subjects, tending to wither and blight every 
thing that is naturally beautiful and good in the character of man. Can 
this system be tolerated without sin ? 

6. This system demoralizes the whites as well as the Hacks. Masters 
are in a great degree irresponsible for the exercise of their power ; and 
they generally feel that their object in possessing and exercising their 
dominion is their own utility, and not the good of those over whom 
they rule. Now, power can never be held or exercised without moral 
injury to its possessor, unless its exercise be subject to responsibility, or 
unless it be held mainly for the good of its subjects, not of its possessor. 
The lives of absolute monarchs furnish us with our most disgusting 
pictures of human depravity. Few, even of those who had been pre- 
viously trained to self-control and virtue, have been able to withstand 
the corrupting influence of unrestrained power. And the effect is in 
some measure the same where despotic authority is possessed and ex- 
ercised in a smaller sphere. No man, acquainted with the frailty of the 
human heart, would desire uncontrolled dominion over his fellow-men. 
We are sufficiently prone by nature to tyranny and a disregard of the 
rights and interests of others, without having these feelings developed, 
cultivated, and matured by a sense of irresponsibility, and by the habit 
of regarding ourselves as born to command, and others as born to obey. 
Where a consciousness of responsibility, equahty, and dependence, 
does not check their growth, hard-heartedness, selfishness, and arro- 
gance are in most men fearfuUy exhibited. And these odious traits of 
character must be peculiarly marked in those who have from childhood 
been trained in the school of despotism. The hand of one of our greatest 
statesmen has strikingly portrayed the demoralizing effects of this 
system on the minds and manners of the ruling class. "There must 
doubtless," says Mr. Jefferson, "be an unhappy influence on the manners 
of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole 
commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most 
boisterous passions, the most unrelenting despotism on the one part, 
and degrading submission on the other. Our children see this, and 
learn to imitate it ; for man is an imitative animal. This quality is the 



436 KEXTUCKY OPINIONS. 

germ of all education in him. From his cradle to his grave he is learn- 
ing to do what he sees others do. If a parent could find no motive 
either in his philanthropy or his self-love for restraining the intem- 
perance of passion towards his slave, it should always be a sufficient 
one that his child is present. But generally it is not sufficient. The 
parent storms, the chUd looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts 
on the same airs in the circle of smaller slaves, gives a loose to the 
worst of passions ; and, thus nursed, educated, and daily exercised in 
tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious peculiarities. The 
man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals unde- 
praved by such circumstances."* Such, according to tlie testimony of 
one who had marked its operation with a philosopher's eye, is the 
character which slavery forms, — a character perfectly the reverse of 
that which the Gospel requires. 

We forbear to picture before you the consequences of that indolence 
and aversion to all manual occupations which are necessarily engen- 
dered in youth surrounded by a servile class who are engaged in these 
pursuits. These consequences you have all seen and felt and deplored. 
Such are the evil effects to ourselves and our children of the system which 
we support. Thus we are made to eat of the bitter food which we prepare 
for others, and drink of the poisoned cup which our own hands mingled; 
the sword with which we unthinkingly destroy others is thus made to 
drink our own blood. These evils, if duly estimated, are alone sufficient 
to arm us with implacable hostility towards the system from which 
they spring. And, in view of these effects, we can almost adopt the 
opinion expressed a few years since on the scaffold, by one who was 
executed for the murder of a slave : " Slavery is a bad system ; it is 
even worse for the master than it is for the slaves." It is a system 
which reminds us of the dark magic of ancient days, an art as fatal to 
those who exercised it as to those who were their victims. 

7. This system draws down upon ibs the vengeance of Heaven. " God is 
just," and " He will render to every one accordiug to his works." 
Oppression can never escape unpunished while He, who hath emphati- 
cally declared that he is the "Judge of the widow" and "the Father 
of the fatherless," is on the throne of the universe. " If thou forbear 
to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to 
be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not ; doth not He that pon- 
dereth the heart consider it ? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not 

♦Jefferson's Notes on Virginia, p. 319. 



ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 437 

He know it ? and shall He not render to every man according to hia 
works?" Not a sparrow falls to the ground, we are told, without the 
notice of God ; how much more dotlx He mark the abuse and oppression 
of a creature who bears His own peculiar image ? " The very hairs of 
our head are all numbered;" much more are the groanings of the 
oppressed and the sighings of the prisoner recorded by Him who says 
that His name is "Gracious," and that His "ear is ever open to the cry 
of the poor and needy." The blood of Abel did not soak into the 
ground unheeded ; it called down judgment upon the guilty man who 
had smitten his brother, and it drove him out a wanderer from the 
land of his birth, a fugitive from the presence of the Lord. But the 
sore cry of milUons of the down-trodden has gone up to heaven from 
the midst of us ; this cry is still swelling upward ; and if there be 
righteousness on the throne of the universe, it must bring down vials 
of wrath upon the heads of all who are engaged in this guilty work. 
And when He cometh to execute vengeance, " who may abide the day 
of His coming?" Who can stand before His indignation? Who can 
stand up in the fierceness of His anger? We see the truth of what 
the prophet declares, that "the Lord is slow to anger;" but we are 
assured that it is equally true that He is " great in power, and will not 
at all acquit the wicked : the Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and 
in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet." 

Brethren, we profess to be Christians ; we reverence the holy revela- 
tion which God has given ; we look to its precepts for guidance, and to 
its denunciations for warnings. We know that the priyiciples of the 
divine dealings are the same in every age, and that what God said to those 
of old, when we are in similar circumstances, He saith unto us. Listen, 
then, to one of the many intimations he has given us of the way in 
which He regards slavery, and the way in which He will punish it. 
" The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, 
and have vexed the poor and needy; yea, they have oppressed the 
stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them, that should 
stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it : but 1 
found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them ; I 
have consumed them with the fire of my wrath : their own way have I 
recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord God." Ezek. xxii. 29-31. 
Can we despise the instructions of the Almighty? Shall we shut our 
eyes and close our ears against the admonitions of the great Judge of 
the earth? Shall we not arise and "gtand in the gap before Him for 
the land, that He may not destroy it?" Though our "nest maybe 



438 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

built on high," and "our defence be the munitions of rocks," we can- 
not escape, if God rise up against i.s. He can blast our prosperity ; He 
can drown us in blood; He can blot out our existence and our name 
from under heaven. 

Let us remember too, that not only as a people, but as individuals, 
God will deal with us. The day is soon coming when every man's 
works which he hath wrought shall be tried as by fire, and we must 
then " eat of the fruits of our own ways." 

We have now exhibited fairly, but briefly, the nature and effects of 
slavery. For the truth of our facts we refer to your own observations ; 
for the correctness of our reasoning we appeal to your judgments and 
consciences. 

[After considering and answering various objections, the committee 
submit the following plan, and their closing appeal :] 

The plan which we propose is, for the master to retain, during a 
limited period, and with a regard to the real welfare of the slave, that 
authority which he before held in perpetuity, and solely for his own in- 
terest. Let the full future liberty of the slave be secured against all 
contingencies by a recorded deed of emancipation, to take effect at a 
specified time. In the mean while, let the servant be treated with kind- 
ness; let. all those things which degrade him be removed; let him 
enjoy means of instruction ; let his moral and religious improvement 
be sought; let his prospects be presented before him, to stimulate him 
to acquire those habits of foresight, economy, industry, activity, skill, 
and integrity, which will fit him for using well the liberty he is soon to 
enjoy. That master is, in our opinion, doing most for the destruction 
of this system who thus sets in operation a machinery which, in a 
given and limited period, will not only unbind the body of the slave, 
but will, link by Unk, and in the only way in which it can be eflFected, 
twist off the fetters that now cramp his soul. If the master retains 
his authority over his servants only for a time, that he may enjoy 
ampler opportunities of employing means for their amendment and ele- 
vation ; if he regards them as a trust committed to him by his Master 
and theirs, for their mutual benefit, and no longer as property, of which 
he has the uncontrolled disposal for his own selfish ends ; if he acts 
and feels thus, he is not only free from guilt, but he is " bringing forth 
fruits meet for repentance," he is doing the work of righteousness and 
humanity. 



ADDRESS OF THE SYNOD. 439 

Brethren, there are three courses before you, one of which you must 
choose : either to emancipate immediately and without preparation, or 
to pursue some such plan of gradual emancipation as we propose, or to 
continue to lend your example and influence to perpetuate slavery. It 
is improbable that you will adopt the first course ; if then you refuse to 
concur in the plan of gradual emancipation and act upon it, however 
you may lull oonscience, you are lending your aid to perpetuate a de- 
raorahzing and cruel system, which it would be an insult to God to 
imagine that He does not abhor ; a system which exhibits power with- 
out responsibility, toil without recompense, life without liberty, law 
without justice, wrongs without redress, infamy without crime, punish- 
ment without guilt, and families without marriage — a system which 
will not only make victims of the present unhappy generation, inflicting 
upon them the degradation, the contempt, the lassitude, and the anguish 
of hopeless oppression, but which even aims at transmitting this heri- 
tage of injury and woe to their children and their children's children, 
down to their latest posterity. Can any Christian contemplate without 
trembling his own agency in the perpetuation of such a system ? And 
what will be the end of these scenes of misery and vice ? Shall we 
wait until worldly politicians and legislators may rise up and bid them 
cease? We shall wait in vain. Already have we heard the senti- 
ment proclaimed from high places and by the voice of authority, that a 
race of slave»s is necessary to the existence of freedom. Is it from 
those who utter such sentiments that we expect deliverance to come ? 
No ; reformation must commence where we are divinely taught that 
"judgment must begin — at the liov^eof Gody This work must be done; 
and Christians must begin it, and begin it soon, or wrath will come 
upon us. The groans of millions do not rise forever unheeded before 
the throne of the Almighty. The hour of doom must soon arrive, the 
storm must soon gather, the bolt of destruction must soon be hurled, 
and the guilty must soon be dashed in pieces. The voice of past his- 
tory and the voice of inspiration both warn us that the catastrophe 
must come, unless averted by repentance. And let us remember that 
we are each of us individually responsible. We are individually assist- 
ing to pile up this mountain of guilt. And even if temporal judgments 
do not fall upon our day, we are not on that account the more safe from 
punishment. If we "know our Lord's will and do it not, we shall be 
beaten with many stripes." The sophistry and false reasoning by 
which we may delude our own souls, will not blind the eyes which 
*' are as a flame of fire." A few years at most will jjlace us where we 



440 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

would gladly give all the slaves of a universe to buy off the punish- 
ment that oppression brings down upon the soul. It may be difficult to 
do our duty, but it will be far more difficult to stand in the judgment 
without having done it. 

Brethren, we have done. The hour is commg in which the slave and 
his master must stand together before the tribunal of God, a God who 
judges righteously. Are you prepared to place yourselves before Him 
who will decide upon your eternal destiny, and say that you have done 
justice to those whom you now hold in bondage ? Are you prepared 
to say, " As I have done unto these, so let it be done unto me ; as I 
have showed mercy, so let me receive mercy at the hands of my 
Judge." Anticipate, we beseech you, the feelings and decision of that 
great day which is fast hastening on ; try yourselves now, as God will 
then try you. "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, 
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" Are you "doing 
justly" while you retain your fellow-men in hopeless bondage? Are 
you " loving mercy" while you are supporting a system that degrades 
and brutalizes beings whom God created in His own image ? These 
are solemn questions. Let reason answer them, and let conscience 
decide your future course. 

John Brown, Chairman. 
John C. Young, Secretary. 

The foregoing paper calls for no comment. It speaks 
for itself ; it is from men of the highest character; and 
they describe the system of slavery as it existed under 
their oion observation* 

MOVEMENT FOR EMANCIPATION IN 1849. 

The next step of public importance which we note, 
revealing the sentiments of the people of Kentucky, oc- 
curred in 1849. The Legislature submitted to the people 
the question of calling a Convention to revise the State 
Constitution, and the people decided affirmatively. The 
subject of slavery was a main topic of consideration in the 
canvass for the Convention. Many citizens, embracing 
many of the largest slaveholders, were in favor of pro- 
viding in the new or revised Constitution for the removal 



PEINCIPLES OF THE STATE CONVENTION. 441 

of the system from the State. " For months previous to 
the election of members of the Convention to frame a new 
Constitution, the press teemed with arguments and appeals, 
public lecturers and orators travelled over the State to 
address the people, and county and State Conventions 
were held to embody and express the sentiments oi' the 
contending parties."* 

A meeting was held in Lexington, on the 14th of April, 
1849, which is thus spoken of: 

The object of the meeting having been explained, in a few eloquent 
remarks hy the Hon. Henry Clay and Rev. R. J. Breckinridge, on 
motion of the latter gentleman, the following resolutions were unani- 
mously adopted: 

1st. That this meeting, composed of citizens of the county of Fayette, 
met in pursuance of public notice, to consider the question of the per- 
petuation of slavery in this Commonwealth, considering that hereditary 
slavery, as it exists among us, (1) Is contrary to the natural rights of 
mankind ; (2) Is opposed to the fundamental principles of free govern- 
ment ; (3) Is inconsistent with a state of sound moraUty ; (4) Is hostile 
to the prosperity of the Commonwealth ; we are therefore of the opinion 
that it ought not to be made perpetual, &c. 

The second resolution recommended the holding of a 
State Convention at Frankfort, on the 25th of April, to 
consider the subject of emancipation, and appointed thirty 
delegates. At this Convention, held on the day above 
named, "the Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge submitted a 
document, which, after being amended with his concur- 
rence, was adopted." 

PEINCIPLES OF THE STATE CONVENTION. 

We merely give the preamble, and the first and main 
point of the paper, as all that is essential to our purpose, 

* The facts stated concerning this movement for Emancipation in Kentucky in 
1&49, we take mainly from an article In the Biblical Repey^tori/, for October of that 
year, founded on an Address of Dr. R. J. Breckinridge, entitled " The Question of 
Negro Slavery, and the New Constitution of Kentucky." This Address is before us. 



442 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

showing the judgment of the State Convention upon the 
character of the system which they sought to remove. 
This portion of the document is as follows : 

This Convention, composed of citizens of the Commonwealth of Ken- 
tucky, and representing the opinions and wishes of a large number of 
our fellow-citizens throughout the Commonwealth, met in the capitol on 
the 25th of April, 1849, to consider what course it becomes those who 
are opposed to the increase and to the perpetuity of slavery in this State 
to pursue in the approaching canvass for members of the Convention, 
called to amend the Constitution, adopts the propositions which follow, 
as expressing its judgment in the premises : 

1. Believing that involuntary hereditary slavery, as it exists by law 
in this State, is injurious to the prosperity of the Commonwealth, incon- 
sistent with the fundamental principles of free government, contrary to 
the natural rights of mankind, and injurious to a pure state of morals, 
we are of opinion that it ought not to be increased, and that it ought 
not to be perpetuated in this Commonwealth. 

The other propositions jof the paper, three in number, 
relate to matters of detail respecting the mode recom- 
mended to the Constitutional Convention for the ultimate 
and entire removal of slavery from the State. This paper 
is signed officially by " Henry Clay, of Bourbon, Presi- 
dent," and by several Vice-Presidents and Secretaries. 

EMANCIPATIONISTS DEFEATED. CAUSES. 

Dr. R. J. Breckinridge was an Emancipation candidate 
for the State Constitutional Convention, but was defeated ; 
and it is said, that " not more than one or two emancipa- 
tionists, if any, according to the public papers," were 
" elected." When, therefore, the Convention assembled, 
instead of providing for emancipation, they placed barriers 
in its way f^ir greater than existed before ; making a course 
of measures of some six or seven years duration necessary 
to reach the practical point in any system of emancipation, 
immediate or gradual, through constitutional and legislative 



PRESBYTERIANS FOR EMAXCIPATIOX. 443 

forms. We have often heard it said in Kentucky, that 
Avhile the largest slaveholders were in favor of emancipa- 
tion at tliat time, the non-slaveholding vote of the State 
gave the Convention the proslavery character it pos- 
sessed.* 

The Repertory thus speaks of the failure of the emanci- 
pation cause, and of the agencies employed in its behalf: 

It may be difficult for those out of the State to discern all the causes of 
this lamentable defeat. There are, however, some things connected with 
the subject patent to every observer. In the first place, the failure of 
the cause of emancipation is not to be- referred to any want of ability on 
the part of its advocates. Those advocates comprise some of the most 
distinguished men not only of Kentucky, but of the Union ; men who 
have no superiors in the power to control public sentiment. If the cause 
of freedom could have been carried, it must have been carried by such 
men. If any appeals could produce conviction, it would have been 
produced by the address mentioned at the head of this article. Self- 
interest, ignorance, and prejudice, are proof against any tiling ; but the 
human mind, when unbiassed, and sufficiently enlightened to compre- 
hend their import, cannot resist such arguments, nor harden itself 
against such sentiments as are here presented. It must be conceded, 
then, that the cause of emancipation in Kentucky has Aiiled for the 
present, in spite of the exertions of men of the highest order of talents 
of which the country can boast. 

PRESBYTERIANS UNANIMOUSLY FOR EMANCIPATION. 

Again, some seem disposed to refer this failure to the lukewarmness 
of the Churches in Kentucky. T\'e are not prepared to speak on this 
subject for other Churches, but surely this reproach cannot fairly be 
brought against our own Church. The Preshykrians have taken the lead 
in this struggle. There is not a prominent man in the Synod of Ken- 
tucky, who has not been conspicuous for his zeal and efforts in behalf 
of emancipation. No names in connection with this subject are more 

* The Repertory says on this point : " The impression seems very general that the 
emancipationists have been defeated by the slaveholders. This is a gi-eat mistake. 
A large and most influential class of the slaveholders are themselves emancipation- 
ists." "The fact, therefore, that the non-slaveholders in Kentucky have voted 
against emancipation, is not to be attributed to the influence of the slave-owners." 

20 



444 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

prominent than those of Drs. R. J. Breckinridge, John C. Young, Wil- 
Ham L. Breckinridge, and of the Rev. Mr. Bobinson, of Frankfort. As far 
as we know, there is not a single Preslyterian minister whose name is 
found among the advocates of slavery. 

We f^ive these extracts because they state the case better 
than we can do, and because we wish the facts to go forth 
with greater weight than our individual authority could 
impart to them. They were written and published soon 
after the events occurred, and we are not aware that they 
have ever been called in question. The material facts 
Avhich bear upon our immediate purpose are : that in 1849, 
" Presbyterians" took " the lead" in Kentucky for eman- 
cipation ; that there was then " not a prominent man in the 
Synod" who was " not conspicuous for his zeccl in belialf 
of emancipation;" that among the distinguished "names" 
than which none were "more prominent," is here given 
" the Ilev. Mr. Bobinso?), of Frankfort ;" and that there 
was, at that time, " not a single Presbyterian minister" in 
the Synod of Kentucky, " whose name was found among 
t/te advocates of slavery.^'' 

DBS. HUMPHEEY AND W. L. BRECKINKIDGE UPON EMANCT- 

PATION IN 1849. 

In the year 1850, Drs. William L. Breckinridge and E. 
P. Humphi-ey published a vindic ition of Dr. E. D. Mac 
Master from the aspersions cast upon him by Dr. N. L. 
Rice, in which they bear the following testimony to the 
position taken by Presbyterian ministers, elders, and 
Church-members, in Kentucky, for emancipation : 

It is well known that during the past year a movement was made for 
emancipation, — that is, the ultimate extinction of slavery, — in the State 
of Kentucky. The first public meeting on this subject, of which we 
heard, was addressed by two Presbyterian ministers. The address to 
the friends of the cause throughout the State, calling a convention at 
the seat of Grovernment, was drawn up by a Presbyterian minister. 



POSITION OF DK. R. J. BRECKINRIDGE IN 1849. 415 

When the Convention met, in April, 1849, there appeared, among- its 
members, more than twenty Presbyterian ministers and ruling elders. 

* * * The Presbyterian ministers in Kentucky, so far as we know, 
almost without exception, and the great body of the ruling elders and pri- 
vate memhers of the Churches^ concurred in these views expressed by the Con- 
vention [referring to the paper adopted as given above]. Nor have wo 
heard of any expression of the public sentiment of the Church at large, 
censuring them in this behalf.* 

According to this testimony, from two gentlemen who 
were at the time Pastors of Churches in the city of Louis- 
ville, the vast body of ministers, elders, and people of the 
Presbyterian Church in Kentucky, were, in 1849, in favor 
of the removal of slavery from the State. 

POSITION OF DR. R. J. BRECKINRIDGE IN 1849. 

The stand taken by Dr. R. J. Breckinridge is already 
shown by the resolutions he introduced, and which were 

* The direct purpose of the article from which we here quote, was not to exhibit 
the sentiments of the writers or those of the people of Kentucky upon slavery. 
This is done very fully and satisfactorily, but it was only incidental to their main 
object. As said above, their direct aim was to vindicate a distinguished Theological 
Professor from the charge of being a disturber of the Church in propagating ultra- 
abolition doctrines, brought against him by Dr. Rice. They do this triumphantly, 
by showing: (1.) That Dr. MacMaster simply held the views formally set forth by 
the Church in which he was a minister; (2.) That these views were the same aa 
Professors in other seminaries held; (3.) That they M-ere the same as had been 
acknowledged by the ministers, elders, and people of Kentucky in 1849; (4.) 
That even Dr. Rice himsdf had professed to approve the action of Presbyterians in 
Kentucky in 1S49 ; (.5.) And that, so lixr from having been a disturber of the Church, 
the whole course of Dr. MacMaster showed, as illustrated by specific facts which 
they cite, that he had been specially prudent, and had said and done very little upon 
the subject of slavery; far less, indeed, in the line of writing and lecturing, than the 
man who had assailed him. Immediately following the quotation given above, Drs. 
Breckinridge and Humphrey say : "But what does Dr. Rice think of them [people 
of Kentucky] and their movement ? They have said full as much as Dr. MacMaster 
has said against slaver}% and they have done a vast deal more. If he must be dis- 
franchised, proscribed, and hunted down, whnt is due to those whose little fingers 
are thicker than his loins? * * * This would seem to be sufficient to show that 
Dr. Rice's clamor a'.'aiust Dr. MacMaster is without the shadow of foundation, 

* * * We find in Dr. MacMaster's views on the subject, no objection to him as a 
friend, as a minister, or as a Professor." 



446 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

adopted in the Fayette County meeting, and agnin by the 
paper adopted by the State Emancipation Convention 
which he presented. During the canvass for the State 
Constitutional Convention, Dr. Breckinridge issued an 
Address to the people, on " The Question of Negro Sla- 
very and the New Constitution," from which we give a 
few sentences showing the character of the institution of 
slavery in his judgment, and the com-se he urged the people 
to take. 

In the following paragraph he gives a graphic view of 
proslavery statements : 

The bulk, however, of the proslavery candidates for the convention 
and the bulk of that party, so far from agreeing tlmt slavery is an evil 
— which it is the misfortune of the State to be obliged to tolerate — pro- 
fess to consider it a great advantage and bles.sing, which it is our duty 
to foster, to enlarge, and to perpetuate. They desire to surround it 
with new constitutional guarantees, to make it more difficult to be 
abolished, in all time to come ; and to secure the constitutional prohibi- 
tion of manumissions within this State, and the constitutional guarantee 
of slave importations into it. The burden of their disquisitions is the 
divine origin of the riglit of property of man in man, the marked appro- 
val of slavery by Christ and His Apostles — the imm.ense superiority of 
the people in slaveholding communities to all other people — the vast 
advantages of slavery, in a moral, social, and pecuniary point of view; 
the hcentiousness, poverty, and degradation of the poor whites in all 
countries where there are no slaves ; the turpitude, folly, and impracti- 
cability of all schemes of emancipation ; the utter unfitness of negroes 
for any other condition than slavery ; and, as the conclusion of the whole, 
tlie necessity for a larger surrender of power by the people in the new 
constitution in regard to slavery, in order that the institution may be 
placed on a footing at once niore firm and more durable. I am aware 
that unless some collector of the essays, circulars, handbills, speeches, 
pamphlets, and newspaper articles to which our present discussions have 
given birth, shall transmit to posterity a fair sample of the political 
literature of our day, our children will hardly believe that such things 
were possible. In point of fact, the statements I have made come short 
of what I hear and read every day. 



POSITION OF DR. K. J. BRECKINRIDGE IX 1849. 447 

In the following paragi-aphs, Dr. Breckinridge shows 
the character and influence of the system of shivery, and 
appeals to the people in thrilling terms to take such a 
course as shall prevent its further increase and work its 
entire removal: 

How clear is it, that Kentucky should place in a convention invested 
with such transcendent powers, none but pure, wise, enlightened, and 
trustful men; and that such men, when they are met, should act for 
Kentucky; for all Kentucky, and for her highest and largest good; and 
that Kentucky, therefore, is the great party in these affairs 1 

Now is it for the interest, the honor, the riches, the power, the glory, 
the peace, the advancement, the happiness, of this great Commonwealth, 
to exert her sovereign power in such a way, and to the intent, that 
involuntary, hereditary, domestic negro slavery shall be indefinitely in- 
creased and everlastingly established in her bosom? Men of Kentucky, 
ask yourselves that question ; then lay your hands upon your hearts 
and answer it I Is it her bounden duty to increase and to 
perpetuate an institution which the whole civilized world except the 
fifteen slave States on this continent, and the Empire of Brazil, unites 
in condemning and denouncing? Is it her sacred duty to set at defi- 
ance the voice of the human race ? Is it laid upon her by an irresist- 
ible obligation to d( this in the face of a world struggling for freedom, 
and looking to thi; country for examples of liberty, justice, and right? 
* * * I shall A-ot speak of the private condition of slaves, or their 
individual treatment. What now concerns us is the state of public law. 
The law, as to all other subjects, is often better on the statute-book 
than in practice ; for the conduct of men is not always as good as their 
principles, or professions. On this subject, it is my opinion that the 
law is worse than the practice under it ; and this is one of the anomalies 
of slavery, that the evil element in it constantly gets the mastery. Slavery, 
as it exists by law in this State, presents this aspect: 1st. The rights 
of property are absolutely and universally abolished, as to the slaves. 
2d. The rights of person and character are unknown, as to them, except 
as the interest of the master and the public peace may demand the re- 
cognition. 3d. The institution of marriage, as between slaves, has no 
legal recognition, nor do marital rights exist as to them. 4th. The re- 
lation of parent and child, as between slaves, is not recognized by the 
law, except in determining questions of property. Now it is perfectly 



44 S KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

obvious that every one of these rights is inherent in human nature, 
and that their existence and their protection he at the foundation of 
luiman society, w^hich could not exist for a day, under any form, if these 
rights were universally abolished. Moreover, they are all of divine 
authority ; and as the State itself — that is, human society — is ordained 
of God, we have one of God's institutions abolishing, as to immense 
numbers of His rational creatures, the very foundations on which He has 
erected that institution, and rendered possible the social state He or- 
dained for those creatures. This is a condition of things for whose in- 
crease there can be no justification ; and whose everlasting continuance 
can be defended only upon grounds which subvert the order of nature, 
the ordinations of heaven, and the foundations of the social state. 
* * * Our divine religion has been invoked against us. God, the 
creator of man, and his infinite benefactor, it is constantly alleged, is the 
great Author of the institution by which man has the most efiectually 
defaced God's image in man. Jesus of Nazareth, the friend of sinners, 
meant, we are told, by His great law of love, that man should enslave 
his fellow-man; by His subhme revelation of the universal bond of hu- 
man brotherhood, to teach us that we might afflict and crush all around 
us ; by His royal law of doing to others as we wish them to do to us, to 
give us a rule by which to limit and restrict our bowels of compassion 
within rational bounds ! These are great expositions ; and the more to 
be cordially received, as they are uttered by those having no sort of 
interest or motive in perverting the word of God; and as they accord 
so precisely with the whole sentiments of God's people throughout all 
ages! Look around you, my countrymen. On which side of these 
questions is the great body of the disciples of Jesus Christ? On 
which side are to be found the most of those who seem to you to 
understand, to practise, and to love God's law ? Why do you hear in 
popular addresses, and read in resolutions of popular assemblies, such 
denunciations of the Ministers of the Gospel, whose abuse is a staple 
theme, in a large portion of the slavery party? Ask your hearts, is not 
all this natural — is it not all just what might have been expected ? Ask 
the fiercest of those who denounce us, whether, in their calm moments, 
they think Christian people and Christian ministers had better plead for 
or against the suffering and the oppressed — for or against the liberties 
of mankind? What is happening around us, has happened every- 
where. What men have blushed to advocate upon their own respon- 
sibility, they have endeavored to justify in the name of the adorable 
God, and then traduced His servants for bearing testimony against 



HON". GARRETT DAVIS ON SLAVERY IN 1849. 449 

them. But has that arrested the arm of tlie Lord? Follow Ilis glorious 
word across the track of ages, and make with it the circuit of the 
world. "Where was this institution of hereditarj^ slavery ever abohshed, 
where a divine revelation had not come? Where, on the other hand, 
has hereditary slavery held its ground unshaken, in the midst of tlie 
light of this Heaven-descended truth? Surely God's people know, if 
anybody knows, what is God's mind. Surely God's word, by meaus of 
His word, is a reliable exposition of what He designed that word to ac- 
complish. 

The record whicli is thus made by the Emancipation 
party in Kentucky, in 1849, is one, in our judgment, of 
whicli the persons concerned Avill never liave cause to be 
ashamed. They took then* noble stand in a great popular 
movement on the side of right ; and though defeated, they 
were not dishonored. It is no doubt quite as clear now, 
— and perhaps far more palpable, as seen in the perils that 
are now upon the State and the Nation, growing out of 
slavery, — to all the surviving actors who favored emanci- 
pation in 1849, as well as to those who opposed them, that 
it would have been infinitely better for the State, had the 
people at large concurred in the system then sought to be 
inaugurated. 

HON. GARRETT DAVIS ON SLAVERY IN 1849. 

Mr. Davis, now in the United States Senate from Ken- 
tucky, was a member of the Constitutional Convention 
held in 1849. In a discussion on slavery in that body, he 
is reported as saying : 

But it appears to me that any intelligent and carefully reflectmg mind 
must come to the conclusion that slavery is to have but a transitory 
existence in Kentucky. The general sentiment of the world is against 
it, before which, in fifty years, it has receded vastly ; and this senti- 
ment is deeply and widely formed in our limits, and among our own 
people. * * * The history of slavery, as we have it, proves m all 
ages the past that it is j^rogressing to ils end. That consummation 



450 KENTUCKY OPINIONS. 

is in the course of events, and when men throw themselves in the 
current of events to hasten, or to retard, they are but strawd. Let 
all straivs be kept out of that section of this resistless current which 
flows through Kentucky, and let it roll on in its undisturbed power. 

We have said that those who took bold and decided 
ground for emancipation then, made up an enduring and 
honorable record. This is especially true of the Presby- 
terian clergy. Their posterity will not be ashamed of 
tliem. 

A GLOKIOrS RECORD TARNISHED. 

But where do we find some of them now ? On which 
side are they battling about slavery now, — not as the insti- 
tution was then, reposing in peace, but — when it has risen 
up in its treasonable rage and is filling the land with car- 
nage and wailing ; when it is cai rying fire and sword to 
the homes of Kentucky; and when all this is undertaken 
and prosecuted for the sole purpose of j^erpetuatlng for- 
ever the system which in 1849 the Presbyterians of Ken- 
tucky wished, unanimously, to remove from among them ? 

The " Rev. Mr. Robinson, of Frankfort," so " conspicuous 
for his zeal in behalf of emancipation" in 1849, is Dr. 
Stuart Robinson, of Toronto, Canada, now editor of The 
True Presbyterian^ issued in Louisville, Kentucky. That 
paper, as we have proved in a previous chapter, is filled 
with treason against the Government, and is aiding the 
rebellion as far as it dare go in that direction. It of course 
advocates the system of slavery out of which the rebellion 
has arisen. Number after number of that paper has been 
mainly devoted to a vindication of slavery from the 
extreinest proslavery position taken by the leaders of the 
rebellion in the South. In 18i9, his *' zeal" was "con- 
spicuous" in maintaining the principles of the Emancipa- 
tion Stat^ Convention of Kentucky, which declared slavery 



A GLOEIOUS KECORD TARNISHED. 451 

to be " contrary to the natural rights of mankind, and 
injurious to a pure state of morals." In 1862, '63, '64, 
when the nation is struggling for its life, against the foul- 
est rebellion the earth ever saw, — a i-ebellion begun in the 
name of slavery, urged on for the sake of slavery, fighting 
for slavery, li\iug for slavery, worshipping slavery, doom- 
ing a whole generation of its young men to a cruel death 
for slavery, and aiming to supplant universal liberty for 
slavery, — Dr. Robinson's "zeal" is made "conspicuous" 
in using all his power, through his paper, to convince the 
"Presbyterians" of Kentucky, hitherto opposed to slavery, 
that the system among them which they formerly denounced 
is "divine," an "ordinance of God," justified by law and 
by Gospel, the best condition for the negro race, in accord- 
ance with the law of nature, and all the other fine things 
which Southern rebels say of it ; while, to dissent from 
this, to speak of slavery as did the Emancipation Conven- 
tion of Kentucky in whose behalf his " zeal" was once 
"conspicuous," is "infidelity" in any man, and for the 
Church to do this is incurable "apostasy." 

This is his former record ; and this is his present one. 
We wish it could be said with truth that other Presby- 
terian ministers and members stand where they were all 
reported as standing fifteen years ago. But it is unques- 
tionably true that many of them, judging from the edi- 
torials, coi-respondents, and support given to The True 
Presbyterian^ have repudiated their former record, and 
now stand for the twin-powers, slavery and rebellion. 
20"^ 



452 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAYERT. 



CHAPTER XII. 

MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAYERY. 

We have shown at some length, in previous chapters, 
the opinions entertained of slavery as an institution, both 
at the North and in the South, by the Church, by states- 
men, and by the people, from before the establishment of 
the National Government down to a period within some 
thirty years; and they exhibit, with rare exceptions, a 
concurrent testimony against the system, on grounds both 
of principle and policy. Divines and statesmen, during 
the earlier period, as well in those States where it was 
established as elsewhere, regarded it as an evil to be toler- 
ated rather than justified, and many of them hoped for its 
ultimate removal from the country, and aided schemes of 
emnncipation with that end in view. 

Durina: the later period, a total revolution in opinion 
has obtained in the States in rebellion, embracing the 
Church and the world together, which has been for many 
years practically universal. It now approves what it once 
condemned, npplauds what it once lamented, justifies what 
it once tolerated, blesses what it once denounced, and 
places under the divine sanction what it formerly con- 
signed to God's withering curse. 

As this change in Southern opinion is the fruitful germ 
which has brought forth this monstrous rebellion, we pro- 
pose in this chapter to give some examples of the present 
status of this opinion, confining ourselves as before chiefly 
to the Church, as seen in the views of leading divines and 
ecclesiastical bodies. There is nothing in this aspect of 



DEFENDED BY NORTHERN MEX. 453 

the subject which requires that we should present this 
testimony in the chronological order of its utterance. It 
rather seems appropriate that we should exhibit some of 
the later expressions of opinion first, that we may see to 
what they have grown, and the baldness and boldness 
with which they are announced. We shall show, also, at 
the conclusion of this chapter, the development and pro- 
gress of this modern opinion in the South in the order of 
time, and thus show how far the Church is responsible 
for leading: and misleading^ the men of the world. Our 
chief object, however, is to set forth the sharp contrast 
between present and former opinions in the same section 
of country. 

DEFENDED BY NORTHERN MEN. 

We have entitled this chapter, "Modern Southern 
Views of Slavery," because the opinions here presented 
are mostly entertained in the South. But it will be seen, 
that nmong their stanchest advocates are found divines 
iji the free and in the Border slave States. And what is 
a most significant fact in this connection is, that at no 
time since the existence of our Government have promi- 
nent Northern men been so bold in advocating and defend- 
ing slavery, — many of them going to the extreme length 
of modern Southern opinion, and justifying it on every 
ground, human and divine, — as since the beginning of the 
rebellion caused by slavery, and during a short time pre- 
vious, when the determination openly to resist the Govern- 
ment for the sake of slavery was in process of maturing. 
Volumes and pamphlets, of various ponderosity in size and 
argument, have been written by Bishop Hopkins, Presi- 
dent Lord, Dr. Seabury, Professor Morse, and other men 
of equal and some of less distinction. Besides these, 
sermons have been issued, and portions of the periodical 



454 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 

press have come to the rescue ; while at least one pro- 
fessedly religious newspaper in Kentucky, conducti^d and 
supported l)y Presbyterians, is battling lustily and con- 
stantly as no religious journal within the State has ever 
been known to do before, going the full length of the most 
ultra Soutliern extremists in vindication of the system, and 
commending with special earnestness the works and 
writers to which we refer. There is a certain significance 
in these things which may be very puzzling to philoso- 
phers or very easy of solution to plain men. 

POSITIONS TAKEN. 

We state the positions which the modern defenders of 
slavery take, and give from their writings quotations 
which illustrate them, classifying both under two general 
heads: the sanction gi\en to slavery by the Laio of 
Nature ; and the sanction claimed for it in the Word of 

God, 

It must be borne in mind, as vital ha the issue, that 
these positions, and the authorities and reasons for thom, 
are presented by those who assert them not only to cover 
slavery in former times and in other nations, but are 
designed to exhibit the grounds on ^^■hich the present sys- 
tem of Negro Slavery in the South is vindicated and sanc- 
tioned. 

The views taken of the system by Southern extremists 
and their Northern " alhes," though ditfering somewhat 
among their defenders, may be substantially reduced to 
the following form : 

I. That slavery is in no sense the creature of local lav/, 
or indeed of any law of man, but is based upon the Law 
of Nature; that it is normally universal, found among all 
states of society and in every nation where it has not been 
positively prohibited, and has existed from the origin of 



AUTHORITIES FOR THESE POSITIONS. 455 

the race to the present time ; and that, therefore, " slavery 
is not municipal but natural," while '' it is abolition which 
is municipal and local :" the grand conclusion from all 
which is, that Negro Slavery as it exists in the United 
States is sustained by these sanctions. 

II. That slavery exists by the positive statutes of Divine 
Revelation ; that it is sanctioned in the Decalogue, is an 
institution of the patriarchal age, has the approbation of 
the Mosaic code, was approved by all the prophets, and is 
interwoven with the whole history and ordinances of the 
Jewish Church ; that it was sanctioned and regulated by 
Christ and the Apostles, and existed in the New Testa- 
ment Church wliich they established; that it is phiced by 
the Scriptures on the same footing with the civil, connu- 
bial, and parental relations, and is therefore " an ordinance 
of God" of the same character with them, in its riglits, 
interests, duties, and permanency ; that the system in the 
Southern States is the fulfilment of the prophetic curse 
upon Canann the son of Ham ; that it is essential to the 
intellectual and moral elevation of the negro race in the 
South ; that it is the proper system for the evangelization 
of heathen ; and that, as to tlie type of Soutliern negro 
slavery in particular, " it might have existed in Paradise 
and may continue througli the Millennium :" the grand con- 
clusion from all which is, that Negro Slavery as it exists 
in the United States is sustained by these sanctions. 

AUTHORITIES FOR THESE POSITIONS. 

We select a few passages out of enough to fill a volume, 
which it will be seen fully cover all the points in the fore- 
going paragraphs. We take them in such order, as far as 
convenience of extracting will admit, as will show their 
bearing upon each of the positions in the order in which 
they are announced. 



456 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 

I. As related to Natural and Municipal Law. 

Rev. James H. Thornwell, D. D., of Columbia, S. C: "It has been 
contended that the right of property in slaves is the creature of positive 
statute, and, consequently, of force only within the limits of the juris- 
diction of the law. * * * Slavery has never, in any country, so far 
as we know, arisen under the operation of statute law. It is not a muni- 
cipal institution — it is not the arbitrary creature of the State, it has not 
sprung from the mere force of legislation. Law defines, modifies, and 
regulates it, as it does every other species of property, but law never 
created it. The law found it in existence, and, being in existence, the 
law subjects it to fixed rules. On the contrary, what is local and muni- 
cipal, is the abolition of slavery. The States that are now non-slavehold- 
mg liave been made so by positive statute. Slavery exists,, of course, in 
every nation in which it is not prohibited. It arose in the progress of 
human events, from the operation of moral causes ; it has been 
grounded by philosophers in moral maxims ; it has always been held to 
be moral by the vast majority of the race. No age has been without 
it. From the first dawn of authentic history until the present period, 
?t has come down to us through all the course of ages. We find it 
among nomadic tribes, barbarian hordes, and civilized States. Wherever 
communities have been organized, and any rights of property have been 
recognized at all, there slavery is seen. If, tlierefore, there be any 
property which can be said to be founded in the common consent of the 
human race, it is the property in slaves. If there be any property that 
can be called natural, in the sense that it spontaneously springs up in 
the history of the species, it is the property in slaves. If there be any 
property which is founded in principles of universal operation, it is the 
property in slaves. To say of an institution, whose history is thus 
the history of man, which has always and everywhere existed, that 
it is a local and municipal relation, is of ' all absurdities the motliest, 
the merest word that ever fooled the ear from out the schoolman's jar- 
gon.' Mankind may have been wrong — that is not the question. The 
point is, whether the law made slavery — whether it is the police regu- 
lation of limited localities, or whether it is a property founded in natural 
causes, and causes of universal operation. We say nothing as to the 
moral character of the causes. We insist only upon the fact that slavery 
is rooted in a common law, wider and more pervading than the com- 
mon law of England — the universal custom of mankind." [The 
capitals are the author's.] — Southern Presbyterian Revieiv, Jan., 1861. 



AUTHORITIES FOR THESE POSITIONS. 457 

Address op the " General Assembly of the Confederate States," 
penned by Dr. Thornwell: "Whatever is universal is natural. We 
are willing that slavery should be tried by this standard. "We are 
willing to abide by the testimony of the race, and if man as man has 
everywhere condemned it. if all human laws have prohibited it as crime, 
if it stands in the same category with malice, murder, and theft, then 
we are willing, in the name of humanity, to renounce it, and to renounce 
it forever. But what if the overwhelming majority of mankind have 
approved it; what if philosophers and statesmen have justified it, and the 
laws of all nations acknowledged it," &c.? — Address, &c. ^^io all the 
Churches throughout the Earth,'''' Dec, 1861. 

An Anonymous writer in the Southern Presbyterian Review, for April, 
1861 : " We shall endeavor to give a succinct description, rather than a 
formal definition, of the system as actually existing at the South. 
Slavery, then, is a constitution of the Law of Nature and of nations, by 
which, under certain providential conditions, one man has a right to 
incorporate into his family institution, and to hold under his rule, as the 
head of the house, a class of persons of a different, and, in all the attri- 
butes which fit men for self-government, an inferior race; and to exact 
from them, while in health and vigor, service and labor suited to their 
strength and capacity." 

Rev. Samuel Seabury, D. D., of New York : " I call it American slavery. 
* * * It is this limited form of slavery which I propose to defend; 
not by an appeal to local or positive law, whether State or Federal, but 
by an appeal to the Law of Nature, or the principles of universal jus- 
tice. * * * Where is the nation that has pronounced a state of 
servitude for life contrary to natural justice? What age, before our 
own, could point to moralists that proclaim it an offence against nature 
to hold slaves in the condition in which Providence has placed them ?" 
American Slavery Judijicd by the Law of Nature. 1861. 

The True Presbyterian, Louisville, Kentucky: "In every country 
and in every age slavery has existed, precisely as civil government and 
the family have existed. * * * i^he most polished and enlightened 
nations have recognized this relation. The Persians, the Greeks, the 
Romans, the Gauls, the Saxons, and the Normans, all held slaves, and 
they held them without any more doubt of their right to do so, than of 
their right to establish civil government, or to marry, or to rule their 
children. The greatest legislators and philosophers of antiquity, Solon 
and Lycurgus. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, all approved and regulated 



458 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 

the institution. These master minds of the ancient world, reasoning 
upon the principles of human nature, discern this as one of the lawful 
relations of mankind." — Review of Prof. Morse. 

Similar quotations relating to the first position might be 
given at much greater length, and from many other recent 
writers. We give a sample of the doctrine which covers 
the second position, 

II. As related to Divine Revelation. 

Dr. Thornwell : " That the relation betwixt the slave and his mas- 
ter is not inconsistent with the word of God, we have long since settled. 
Our consciences are not troubled, and have no reason to be troubled, on 
this score. We do not hold our slaves in bondage from remorseless 
considerations of interest. If I know the character of our people, I 
think I can safely say, that if they were persuaded of the essential im- 
morality of slavery, they would not be backward in adopting measures 
for the ultimate abatement of the evil. We cherish the institution, not 
from avarice, but from principle.''^ — Faat-Day Sermon^ Columbia, S. C, 
Nov. 21, 1860. 

Again : "Is it to be asked of us to renounce the doctrines which we 
believe have come down to us from the earliest ages, and have the 
sanction of the oracles of God? Must we give up what we con- 
scientiously believe to be the truth? The thing is absurd." — So. 
Pres. Review^ Jan., 1861. 

Address OP the "General Assembly of the Confederate States," 
penned by Dr. Thornwell : " Slavery is no new thing. It has not only 
existed for ages in the world, but it has existed under every dispensation 
of the covenant of grace in the Church of God. Indeed, the first organi- 
zation of the Church as a visible society, separate and distinct from the 
unbelieving world, was inaugurated in the family of a slaveholder. Among 
the very persons to whom the seal of circumcision was affixed, were the 
slaves of the father of the faithful — some born in his house, and others 
bought with his money. Slavery again, then, reappears under the law. 
God sanctions it in both tables of the Decalogue, and Moses treats it as 
an institution to be regulated, not abolished; legitimated, and not con- 
demned. We come down to the age of the New Testament, and we 
find it again in the Churches founded by the Apostles under the pie- 



AUTHORITIES FOR THESE POSITIOISTS. 459 

nary inspiration of the Holy Gliost. * * * Closes surely made it the 
subject of express and positive legislation, and the Apostles are equally 
explicit in inculcating the duties which sprung from both sides of the 
relation, * * * Moses and the Apostles alike sanctioned the relation 
of slavery. * * * We cannot prosecute the argument in detail, but 
we have said enough, we tliiuk, to vindicate the position of the Southern 
Church. We have assumed no new attitude. We stand exactly where 
the Church of God has always stood, from Abraham to Moses, from 
Moses to Christ, from Christ to the Reformers, and from the Re- 
formers to ourselves. * * * The general operation of the system 
is kindly and benevolent ; it is a real and effective discipline, and with- 
out it we are profoundly persuaded that the African race in the midst 
of us can never be elevated in the scale of being. As long as that 
race, in its comparative degradation, co-exists side by side with the 
white, bondage is its normal condition." — Address, &c., Dec, 1861. 

The AxoxYMOUS writer above quoted gives a specimen of the position 
taken and the argument for slavery propagandism into the Free States : 
" There is nothing in the nature of slavery to restrain its movements, 
any more than the possession of flocks and herds. So, when the 
patriarch Abraham emigrated to the new territory which God had 
given, he took with him not only his cattle but his servants, born in 
his house and bought with his money. If, therefore, there is nothing 
in the nature of slavery to restrain him, the Southern man demands : 
What sovereignty under heaven prevents him from emigrating, as 
Abraham did, with all his household and all his wealth, to the land 
which the Lord has given him, as tenant in common with his Xorthern 
and Western neighbors?" — So. Pres. Review, April, 1861, 

Prof. Samuel F. B. Morse, of New York : " Man, from his very 
nature, dishkes restraints ; he would at all hazards have his own way, 
and hence it is that no appeal takes a deeper hold of his passions and 
instincts than an appeal to his love of freedom. It was the original 
bait of the Tempter which lured man to his ruin. He did not compre- 
hend that slavery to God was man's highest freedom. How shall such 
a nature, set on fire by a word that kindles at once all its fierceness, be 
curbed and repressed within the bounds of reason ?" 

The Professor answers his question by giving us his view of "the 
social system which God has ordained.^'' It has in it these four relations : 
the civil, or that between ruler and ruled; the connubial, or that 
between husband and wife ; the parental, or that between parent and 
child- and the servile, or that between master and slave. He declares 



460 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OP SLAVERY. 

that all these are "ordained" and made equally authoritative by God, and 
the principles which govern them are alike found in tlie Scriptures. 
Again, after speaking of the antislavery views of some, as the " setting 
forth of a religious belief," he inquires: "And what is the opposite 
tenet, declaring slavery to he an ordinance of God, but the declaration of 
a religious 'helieff 

In commenting upon tlie views of Prof. David Christy, of Cincin- 
nati, — who has collected the statistics showing the large numbers 
evangelized in Southern slavery, as compared with converts to Chris- 
tianity on heathen ground, among many heathen nations, particularizing 
the poor success of missions in Liberia among the free blacks, — Prof. 
Morse says : "These are stubborn facts, confirmed by careful, laborious, 
dispassionate research;" and then, from these facts, combating the 
position that slavery is incompatible with the principles of Christianity, 
says : " Experience shows that the converse of tliis dogma, as a general 
rule, is the truth. Christianity has been most successfully propagated 
among a barbarous race, where they have been enslaved to a Christian 
race." — Argwnent on the Ethical position of Slavery in the Social System, 
&c. 

Rev. Stuart Robinson, D. D., Editor of the True Preshyterian, in an 
elaborate article, entitled, " Slavery recognized as a proper Social Order 
in the Church of G-od during every Era of Inspiration," introductory to 
his own doctrines, speaks of the opposite sentiments as "an apostasy 
from the truth of Christ," and as the " Iscariot treason of the artful 
demagogues who are manoeuvring to force gradually upon the Churches 
and the conscientious people of the Border States, the antislavery 
heresies;" and of the persons who oppose them as those Avho "blas- 
pheme God," and as " ajwstates, leading the Church to apostasy." The 
foregoing italics arc those of the article. The positions then taken and 
the passages of Scripture quoted are those usually referred to con- 
cerning servitude in the time of Abraham and Moses : as that the 
Church was originally established by the covenant with Abraham, " a 
slaveholder," "the man called of God to be the father of the visible 
Church on earth;" that "a slaveholder and his slaves were expressly 
made the constituent members of the holy society ;" that "no one who 
receives the Scriptures as of Divine authority, can deny that here is the 
highest form of sanction of the principle of property in man, at least under 
the patriarchal dispensation ;" that the same system continued in the 
" Church Mosaic," where " slaver}- is again recognized as existing in the 
Church by command (the Decalogue), in reference to man-servants auJ 



AUTHORITIES FOR THESE POSXTIOlSrS. 461 

maid-servants ;" and that " both in the lioly ordinance of the Passover, 
and in the holy law given to the Church, siuvery is recognized and not 
excluded from the Church." Then, more especially of the system under 
.he Mosaic code : " Such was the law of tlie Church, as a Church. 
Arouod this Church, as we have said, it was part of the mission of 
Moses to erect, as a protecting shell, a constitutional civil government, 
till, in fulness of time, the Church of one nation became the Church 
of all nations. Now, in that civil code. Divinely inspired, and under 
which Jehovah condescended to rule as political head of tlie nation, 
there could, of course, be no statutes in principle contrary to righteous- 
iiess. Yet the civil code of Moses permitted and regulated slavery, in 
the main recognizing the same principles of tlte modern slave codes of (lie 
Southern States.'' Having stated what '-modern antislavery falsely 
represents to be the Mosaic slave code," he continues: "But nothing 
can be more explicit than the provisions of this code, for a system uf 
hereditary and perpetual slavery, expressly distinguislied again and 
again, from this temporary service as hirelings, or until the year of 
jubilee. Two statutes expressly allow slaves to be bought of surround- 
ing heathen nations, and slaves to be made by capture in war from any 
heathen nations, except the seven nations of Canaan, who were to be 
utterly exterminated." It is then added, " that slavery entered into 
every department of the Hebrew social system by Divine sanction and 
example;' and, finally, the comforting conclusion is reached, tiiat those 
who take the position against which the writer is mainly arguing, " must 
either trifle with the interpretation of Scripture or blaspheme the God 
of Israel." 

Concerning slavery under the New Testament economy, Dr. Robinson 
thus discourseth: That "Jesus Christ, at His advent, found slavery 
existing, not only by the Mosaic law, but as part of every social struc- 
ture in the civiUzed world ;" that " He did not either expressly or im- 
phedly exclude slavery from the Church;" and that '-the propriety of 
slavery under the New Testament rests upon the sovereign will of 
Clirist ill not only allowing it in the patriarchal and JSIosaic Churches, 
but in permitting it to continue in the New Testament Clmrch. not re- 
peahng the law of usage existing, as we have seen, from the foundation 
of the visible Church. That this is the true view of the matter, wih be 
more evident if we examine the practice and teacliing of His Apostles, 
under the reorganized Church, after the outpouring of the Spirit. In 
every community out of whicli Christian Churches were gathered, sla- 
very notoriously existed. Into the New Testam.ent Churches, as into 



462 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 

the Abrahamic and Mosaic, slaveholders and their slaves were admitted 
as constituent elements thereof. While care was taken to instruct the 
Churches that the ceremonial law of Moses had expired by limitation, 
not a word is said of a repeal of the right of j^rojoerty in man. * * * 
The duties of the relation of master and servant are discussed in com- 
mon with the duties of parent and child, husband and wife." Com- 
menting on Prof. Morse's work, referred to above, the True Presbyterian 
says: "Thus these four great relations of human life (the civil, matri- 
monial, parental, and servile) stand side by side, equally approved of God, 
and equally rightful among men. * * * The Saviour Himself, who 
corrected whatever else was wrong in man ; apostles, saints, divines, 
martyrs, synods, councils, philosophers, statesmen, moralists ; all accepted 
slavery as being equally of God with civil govern7nent, marriage, or the 
parental relation.'''' 

Rev. Frederick A. Ross, D. D., of Huntsville, Alabama, says that 
"Slavery is of God;" of the relation of "master and slave," that "it is 
a relation belonging to the same category as those of husband and wife, 
parent and child;" and the work in which these doctrines are set forth 
at length and elaborated, is entitled, ^'Slavery Ordained of God.'''' Of 
himself, he says: "I am not a slaveholder. N'ay, I have shown some 
self-denial in this matter. I emancipated slaves whose money value 
would now be $40,000." This was some years ago. He states the 
reason of referring to this: "I merely wish to show, that I have no 
selfish motive in giving the true Southern defence of slavery.'''' It is but 
justice to Dr. Ross to say, whether it reveals any inconsistency in his 
argument or not, that he is not a perpetualist. In addition to his own 
example to show this, he addresses " the Southern man of every grade" 
thus: "Let him know that slavery is to pass away in the fulness of 
Providence. Let the South believe this, and prepare to obey the hand 
that moves their destiny." Rather prophetic as well as didactic. Nor 
was Dr. Ross opposed to "the agitation," as many Southern men were, 
which he would perhaps say has brought on this " fulness" of time ; 
but he rejoices in it, in tiiis wise: "I believe He will bless the world 
in the working out of this slavery. I rejoice then in the agitation which 
has so resulted, and will so terminate, to reveal the Bible and bless 
mankind." As Dr. Ross's book was published in 1857, "the agitation" 
he "rejoiced" in is that which other Southern men lamented, and for 
which they threatened. 

General Thomas R. R. Cobb, of Georgia: "One of the inmates of 



AUTHOKITIES FOK THESE POSITIONS. 463 

the ark became a 'servant of servants;' and in the opinion of many, 
the curse of Ham is now being executed upon his descendants, in the 
enslavement of tlie negro race:'— Historical Sketch of Slavery, 1858. 

Again, General Cobb sa3-s: " They (Christ and the Apostles) simply 
treated slavery as they did all other civil government, as of God, so 
long as in His providence He permitted it to exist ; and regulated, by 
precepts, the relation, as they did that of ruler and subject."— Law of 
Negro Slavery, 1858. 

Again, General Cobb says: "The test, then, is, does the institution 
of negro slavery tend to promote the physical, intellectual, and moral 
growth of the negro race?" He answers this question in the affirma- 
tive, and in another place, adds: "The inference would seem irresisti- 
ble, that the most successful engine for the development of negro 
intellect is slavery." — Laiv of Negro Slavery, 1858. 

Rev. Thomas Smyth, D. D., of Charleston, S. C, says: "The war 
now carried on by the North is a war against slavery, and is, there- 
fore, treasonable rebellion against the Constitution of the United States, 
and against the word, providence, and government of God. * * * 
Slavery, as a form of organized involuntary labor, has always and every 
where existed among the negro race. * * * "What if God made 
slavery a part of man's and woman's original curse ; what if God 
ordained, as a part of that penalty, that the earth should be brouglit 
into universal cultivation by a universally diffused race, through slavery 
in some form of involuntary servitude ; what if God, by a positive, 
divine enactment, ordained that, through the history of the world, 
slavery should exist as a form of organized labor among certain races 
of men, and that lordship over such slaves should be a part of the 
perpetual blessing of the races of Sheni and Japheth; what if God has 
actually embodied slavery in His moral law, and by there guarding, 
and protecting, and regulating it, has made it appertain to the present 
condition of humanity ; what if He ordained and regulated it under the 
patriarchal, Mosaic, prophetical, and Christian dispensations ; what if 
in the New Testament a curse is pronounced against fanatical opposi- 
tion to slavery as antichristian, and a sentence of withdrawal from 
such as heretical, both in Church and State ; what if, in these and 
other ways, God claims slavery, like other forms of government adapted 
to sinful human nature, as His own ordinance for good ; what, then, 
must be thought of this war of the North against slavery, and this war 
of the South in its defence, as inwoven by Providence into the very 
texture of its body politic ?"—*?o. Frcs. Review, April, 1863. 



4G4 MODERN SOUTHEEN VIEWS OF SLAVEEY. 

Dr. Seabury, defending " American slavery as justified by the Law 
of Nature" (1861), thinks it might have existed, so far as the character 
of slavery is concerned, ''in Paradise." He has a chapter on the 
" Theory of Slavery," in which he says: " But what (methinks I hear 
the reader exclaim), do you think there could have been bondage in 
Paradise ? Pray, why not?" — ''I see no reason, then, why the relation 
of master and servant should not have existed in a state of innocence, 
as well as that of husband and wife, parent and child." — " All this, I 
confess, proceeds on the assumption that slavery, or servitude for hfe, 
does no violence to Nature, but is good and agreeable to Nature." 

The True Frtsbytericm warmly commends Dr. Seabury's book, in suc- 
cessive numbers of the paper, and says : ''He argues that in this view 
of it, slavery being a condition so closely allied to that in which our 
wives, our sons, and our daughters are placed, by the laws of God and 
man, cannot be the degrading and hateful relation tl at modern aboli- 
tionists declare it to be. There is no debasement in it. It might have 
existed in Paradise, and may continue through the Millennium.'''' The 
" Millennium" phase is probably an advance movement on the part 
of the True Presbyterian, which Dr. Seabury may not yet have reached. 
At least, we have not yet discovered it in his book. But if slavery 
could have existed in " Paradise," we see no reason why it may not be 
continued in the "Millennium;" and we expect soon to see its modern 
defenders carrying it into Heaven, and perpetuating it forever. This 
we are prepared for by tlie following from the True Presbyterian, which 
shows how deeply and tenderly the system of Southern negro slavery 
has entwined itself among its Christian affections: "It is certainly 
remarkable that the Scriptures employ this very relation to express our 
subjection to Christ. Believers are constantly called the slaves of Christ : 
all bondage then is not disgraceful ; here is an instance in which slavery 
is sweet and honorable. And if it be not degrading to our wives to obey 
their husbands, and to our children to obey their parents, we cannot 
see why it should degrade a slave to obey his master." — " The slaves of 
Jesus Christ love and revere their Divine Master, a7id rejoice in their 
bondage ; and so may a slave love and revere his human master, and 
delight in his service." 

We always supposed that the Apostle Paul understood the case, when 
he called a Christian, "the Lord's freeman" (1 Cor. vii. 22), but the 
Apostle who presides over the True Presbyterian, to instruct Kentucky 
Christians, is wiser than Paul ; the Christian is, after all, but " the 
Lord's slave:' Our Saviour said of His people : " Ye shall know the 



AUTHOEITIES FOR THESE POSITIONS. 465 

truth, and the truth shall make you free. If the ;:ron therefore 
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." But this mod- 
ern Apostle is wiser tljan Christ. All Christians are " the alaves 
of Jesus Christ;" and the negro slavery of the South is the type of 
the " bondage" in which they are to "rejoice" forevermore! But 
our object here is not to argue upon, but merely to state^ the positions 
of the modern defenders of negro slavery. Every one of course knows 
that the original Greek word (doulvs) is applied to the servant of Christ ; 
but to argue from this, that every Christian is the slave of Clirist, in the 
sense that the Southern negro is the slave of his master under Southern 
law, is about as good logic as some of these writers usually exhibit ; and 
yet, this is the wliole case, so far as the application of a common term 
to things totally distinct is concerned. 

We have another witness to the Millennial phase of the case. Rev. 
Joseph R. Wilson, D. D., of Augusta, Georgia, preached a dis- 
course to his congregation in that city, Jan. 6, 1861, on the "Mutual 
Relation of Masters and Servants as taught in the Bible," the closing 
words of which are as follows : " And, oh, when that welcome day 
shaU dawn, whose light will reveal a world covered ivith righteousness, 
not the least pleasing sight will be the institution of domestic slavery, 
freed from its stupid servility on the one side and its excesses of neglect 
or severity on the other, and appearing to all maukiud as containing 
that scheme of politics and morals, which, by saving a lower race from 
the destruction of heathenism, has, under Divine management, con- 
tributed to refine, exalt, and enrich its superior race!" 

Rev. George D. Armstrong, D. D., Norfolk, Virginia: "With civil 
government, marriage, the family, and slavery, they (the Apostles) dealt 
in the same way." "The Church must labor to make good masters and 
good slaves, just as she labors to make good husbands, good wives, 
good parents, good children, good rulers, good subjects." "The laws 
of our slavebolding States, at tbe present time, ignore the marriage rela- 
tion among slaves. * * * The law in our slaveholdiug States, at the 
present day, gives to the master the right to separate finally husband and 
vjife among his slaves, and this at his jJleasure and for his own profit.'" -^^ — 
Christian Doctrine of Slavery, 1857. 

* At this point, Dr. Armstrong introduces .i long note from FJetcher^s StndieK on 
Slnrery, which he regards as "the most elaborate work on slavery which has been 
published at the South." He quotes Fletcher as saying: " So far as our experience 
goes [Mr. YX^tch&T possibly means "observation" instead of "experience," and/)M- 
sihly not], masters universally manifest a desire to have their negroes marry, and 
to live with their wives and children accordmg to Christian rules.'''' Now, if this 



466 MODEKX SOUTHERN VIEV, S OF SLAYEllT. 

Right Reverend John Henry Hopkins, D. D., Bishop of the Prot- 
estant Episcopal Church in Vermont : " The slavery of the negro race, 
ab- maintained in the Southern States, appears to me fully authorized, 
both in the Old and New Testaments, which, as the written Word of 
God, afford the only infallible standard of moral rights and obligations.*' 
Again, in another place: " The difference between the power of the 
Northern parent and the Southern slaveholder, is reduced to this, 
namely, that the master has a property in the labor of his slave for life, 
instead of having it only to the age of twenty-one." 

The Bishop taJ^es the positions and relies on the arguments so fully 
given in our quotations from others. He further says : " We have 
heard the boasted determination that the Union shall never be restored, 
until its provision for the protection of slavery is utterly abolished. 
And what is the result of all this philanthropy ? The fearful judgment 
of God has descended to chastise these multiplied acts of rebellion 
against His divine Government." " If ever the Union of the States is 
re-established, it can only be, in my humble judgment, by a return to 
the old and Scriptural doctrine, once held alike by the whole Christian 
community, that slavery, in itself, involves no sin." — View of Slavery^ 
rcpuhlishfid by the Author in 1864 . 

Albert Taylor Bledsoe, LL. D., Professor of Mathematics in the 
University of Virginia: "The institution of slavery, as it exists among 
us at the South, is founded in political justice, is in accordance with the 
will of God and the designs of His providence, and is conducive to the 
highest, purest, and best interests of mankind." — Liberty and Slavery, 
1860. 

Rev. Nehemiah Adams, D. D., of Boston, among other apologetics 

is so, one of two things must follow : either, Mr. Fletcher's knowledge of this 
"desire" is ver/ limited; or, it is a mistake to suppose this "desire"' is very prev- 
ftlent, as his language would seem to imply. But granting that he is correct, the 
"desire" is wholly inoperative. This is shown in the simple fact that the laws 
which "ignoi-e <^he marriage relation among slaves," remain the same on this point 
from generp-ti')n to generation. Can any thing demonstrate the purely •»e«aZ and 
m?rc6??«ry spirit of that system of "Christian slavery" which Dr. Armstrong 
defends, more conclusively than this ? Mr. Fletcher gives a good m.any economical 
and mv\i' domestic reasons why '-masters" should "manifest" such "desire." But 
if it is " universal" ami>ng slaveholders, why don't these "masters" (for they rulo 
in Southern politics) -manifest" that "desire" in their Legislatures, and have their 
laws changed? V»'hat but the mercenary &\m\i of the whole system prevents this 
"universal desire" from taking form in late, so that "final separation" could never 
occur? That any such •• desire" exists " universally," will do to tell to the marines. 



RESPONSIBILITY OF THE CHTJSCH. 467 

for the negro slavery of the South, says: "TJhe Gospel is to slavery 
what the growing of clover is to sorrel. Religion in the roasters de- 
stroys every thing in slavery which makes it obnoxious ; and not only 
so, it converts the relation of the slave into an effectual means of hap- 
piness." If this is so, one would think there is very little "growing 
of clover^^ in the South. It is rather strange, when Dr. Adams was 
penning his apologies for slavery, that he did not think of a principle 
he elsewhere notices : "A Northerner at the South soon perceives, that, 
if he feels and shows in a proper manner a natural repugnance to 
slavery, they resptct him for it, while they greatly suspect and distrust 
those from the North who seem in favor of the system."* 

EESPOXSIBILITY OF THE CHURCH FOR THE REVOLUTION LN" 
SOUTHERN OPINION. 

The reader may see, in what we have now given, that 
the present position of the Southern Church and of its 
Northern " allies," is a position of direct antagonism to 
that maintained by substantially the whole country, North 
and South, until within a period of some thirty years. 
The Southern section of the Union, for some years past, 
has with great unanimity maintained these extreme views. 
It is now a very interesting inquiry, What portion of 
the community took the lead, and is therefore primarily 
responsible, for this ethical revolution? Under whose 
teachings, at first, was the general Southern mind brought 
to abjure its former sentiments, and adopt the " corner- 
stone" faith concerning slavery ? Our own opinion is, that 
THE Church, through its leading clergymen, in the pulpit 
ind through the press, led the way, and that, for the most 
)art, the politicians of the South were content to follow 
hem. A mass of testimony exists on this point. We 
,iave space for a bare sample of it. 

* When the Hon. Edward Everett made the first New England speech in Con- 
gress in defence of slavery, John Randolph exclaimed: "I envy neither the head 
nor the heart of any man from the North, who can defend slavery on principle." 

21 



468 MODERN SOUTHERN YIEWS OF SLAYERT. 



EARLY POSITION OF REY. JAMES SMYLIE. 

In proof of the point that the Church led the State, in 
the change of views on the merits of the system of shi- 
very, may be cited an article from the New Orleans True 
Witness, a leligious paper, edited by ReY. R. Mclimis, a 
Presbyterian ck^'gyman, a native Mississippian, who has 
the means of knowino^ whereof he afiirms. It is under 
date of August 18, 1860. It may be added, also, that the 
Synod of Mississippi officially declare the same thing 
stated in this article, as to the leading responsibility for 
this chano;e. The editor remarks as follows : 

Smylie on Slavery. — It is an interesting historical fact, that Rev. 
James Smylie, an Old School Presbyterian minister, was the first ptrson 
in our country ivho look boldly the position that slavery was not inconsistent 
ivlth the teachings of the Bible. He was one of the first Presbyterian 
ministers who came to the Southwest, and assisted in forming the 
Mississippi Presbytery, in 1816. The general view held at this time, 
and for many years after. South as well as Xorth, was that slavery was 
an evil. The question had not been examined. All took it for granted 
that slavery was an evil, and inconsistent with the spirit and teachings 
of the word of God, Hence the sentiments expressed by our Churcli, 
in 1818 — which, by the way, have been most shamefully garbled and 
misrepresented — were at the time the sentiments of the whole country, and 
were regarded a^ a pretty strong Southern document; hence all the South 
voted for it. In fact, so strong was the feeling for emancipation, that 
this act of 1818 discouraged it in our members, where the slaves were 
not prepared for it, while it condemned the " harsh censures and un- 
charitable reflection" of the more ultra men of the North. We have 
referred to this merely to call attention to the fact that the opinion of the 
whole country tvas that slavery ivas an evil. And we know of no man 
who took a different position, until Rev. James Smylie. in answer to a 
letter addressed to him as stated clerk of the above Presbytery, wrote 
a reply, in which he attempted to show that neither the Old nor the 
New Testament Scriptures declared slavery to be a sin, but both recog- 
nized it as an institution belonging to the great social system. This 
letter, which has long since been pubUshed, in a pamphlet of some 



PAPER OF THE SYNOD OF MISSISSIPPI. 469 

eighty pages, small type, was not only the first, but it is, in our view, 
the ablest and most convincing Scriptural argument ever published on 
the subject. It shows research, ability, honesty, and is unanswerable, 
^^hen the substance of this letter was delivered, in 1835 and '36, in the 
Churches of Mississippi, in the form of a sermon, the people generally, 
large slaveholders too, did not sympathize with him in his views. We 
recollect hearing him, on one occasion, for some three hours, and every 
person, without exception, thought him somewhat fanatical. The idea 
that the Bible did sanction slavery was regarded as a neiv doctrine even in 
Mississipjn. Yet Rev. James Smylie — and a more honest man never 
lived — was honestly sincere in his convictions and his views, and he went 
ahead against the tide of public opinion. His Scriptural argument has 
never been answered, nor can it be. This letter was the first thing that 
turned public attention in the South, and especially in the Southwest, to the 
investigation of the subject ; and every Scriptural argument we have seen 
is but a reproduction of this, whUe none is so clear, full, and unanswer- 
able. It ought to be repubhshed. 

Some two years after the publication of this letter, George Mc- 
Duffie, a senator of South Carolina, announced similar views in Con- 
gress, and was regarded there as taking a strange and untenable 
position — one which met with little sympatliy in that body. The fact 
is, tlie South had never examined the subject, and were finally driven 
to it by the intolerant fanaticism of ultra men at the North. 

We mention the above facts, not for the purpose of provoking dis- 
cussion, but merely to show the state of public opinion at the time on 
the subject of slavery ; and to show that the South is indebted to a 
minister of our Church for the first clear and unanswerable argument 
against the generally admitted view that slavery was a sin. 

PAPER OF THE SYNOD OP MISSISSIPPI. 

It will be seen from the official document which follows, 
that Mr. Smylie began to make public his views somewhat 
earlier than the time mentioned by Mr. Mclnnis ; at least, 
before he received the letter from the Presbytery of Chil- 
licothe. The following is an extract from an obituary 
notice of Rev. James Smylie, of Mississippi, which was 
reported in the Synod of which he was a member, and by 
that body unanimously adopted: 



470 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OP SLAVERY. 

Extract from the Minutes of the Synod of Mississippi^ at a Meeting held in 
the City of Jackson, Mus., in December, 1853. 

There is one production from his pen which produced a strong sensa- 
tion in various parts of the United States. When the abolition excite- 
ment arose in the North, he resolved, as many others ought to have done, 
to give tlie Sacred Scriptures a thorough searching, to ascertain the doc- 
trines and duties there inculcated in relation to slavery. lie determined 
to investigate the subject in the most candid manner, and to receive 
whatever was taught with the most fearless and implicit faith. The 
result surprised himself. He found that the teachings of Scripture were 
greatly at vo.riance with the popular belief. He wished to communicate his 
discoveries to others. He wrote a sermon on the subject and preached 
it at Port Gibson. It gave great offence not only to the Church, bat also to 
his brethren in the ministry, who seriously advised h.im to 2yreach that ser- 
mon no more. In the meantime, the Presbytery of Chillicothe (in Ohio) 
assumed the lofty position of instructors of their brethren of the South 
on the subject of slavery, exhorting them to abandon it as a heinous sin. 
They addressed a letter to the Presbj- tery of Mississippi on tlie subject. 
This letter was received by Mr. Smylie as stated Clerk. He wrote a 
reply, to be laid before the Presbytery for their adoption. He read this 
reply to one of his brethren before the meeting. As he had entered into 
the teachings of Scripture in relation to slavery, the reply was long ; 
and many of his views differed from those of his brethren. On these 
two accounts he was told that his reply would not, in all probability, be 
adopted by the Presbytery. It was then agreed that the brother whom 
he had consulted should Avrite another reply, in a different style and 
manner, and more concise, and that this should be offered if his was not 
adopted. The concise reply was adopted by the Presbytery, and the 
Chillicothe letter and the reply were published together in a religious 
newspaper at Cincinnati, and there was no further annoyance from the 
Presbytery of Chillicothe. Mr. Smylie then determined that he would pub- 
lish his views in a pamphlet form. Such was the variation of his senti- 
ments from those of his brethren, that all whom he consulted, with but one or tivo 
exceptions^ attempted to dissuade him fro7n this step. "With tliat honest 
inflexibility of purpose and confidence in the correctness of his own con- 
clusions which ever distinguished the man, he published his pamphlet. 
For a while he was covered with odium, and honored with a large 
amount of abuse from the abolitionists of the North, for teaching that 
the Bible did not forbid the holding of slaves, and that it vv^'as tolerated 



COXFIRilATOr.Y TESTIMONY. 471 

in the primitive Church. These doctrines are now received as true both 
North and South, and they constitute the basis of action of the most 
respectable rehgious bodies even in the North itself; so that Mr. SmyUe 
has the high honor of giving tlie true exposition of the doctrines of the 
Eible in rel;i*"ion to slavery, in the commencement of the Abohtion ex- 
citement, and of giving instruction to others far more learned and talented 
than himself. 

Jackson, Miss., > (Signed) J. H. Van Court, 

December \1th, 1853. f Chwirman. 

CONFIRMATORY TESTIMONY. 

In Dr. Baird's " Southern Rights and Northern Duties," 
before referred to, we find incidental evidence confirmatory 
of the point that certain of the Southern clergy were ear- 
lier than Southern statesmen in announcing the new doc- 
trines on slavery. John C. Calhoun has been deemed, 
along with Mr. McDufiie, named above, one of the earliest 
among Southern Statesmen to take extreme pro'Javery 
ground. But Dr. Baird places him in the rear of Mr. 
Smylie, in point of time. Speaking of the Anti-Slavery 
Society, he says : " This society was but three years old, 
when, in 1835, it acquired an illustrious ally in the business 
of slavery agitation in the person of Mr. Calhoun, who 
then, as he afterward avowed, began to act upon the policy 
which ruled his subsequent life." 

Mr. Smylie began the work somewhat earlier. Nor is 
it supposed that he was impelled by any agitation at that time 
at the North. Even Dr. Baird says that " in 1835," " the 
antislavery party was an insignificant faction." And from 
that day forward it was but a small fraction of the people. 
We have heard Mr. Smylie, from his own lips, state what 
led him at first to examine the subject more fully, and 
finally to repudiate the views then universal at the South. 
We were a member of the Synod of Miss.issippi, and pres- 
ent, when the obituary concerning him was adopted ; and 
from our personal knowledge, we know it was the common 



472 MODERN SOUTHERN VIEWS OF SLAVERY. 

belief among all classes in the Church at the Souths that 
he and other clergymen, chiefly in the Presbyterian Church, 
were the first to take open and broad ground on that plat- 
form which maintains the extreme proslavery views, — that 
Slavery is a divine system, an ordinance of God, on a par 
with the parental and matrimonial relations, — views which, 
at length, in the demands which were made in their name, 
plunged the country into treason, rebellion, and war. 

It is, therefore, no slander upon the Southern Church 
and Southern Clergy to say that they led the way in the 
revolution in Southern opinion upon slavery. They claim, 
to have done this ; they deem it an honor ; they glory in 
it ; they will not divide the honor with politicians ; but, as 
in regard to the rebellion, as we have shown elsewhere, 
they claim to have led both politicians and people. As a 
suitable reward for this noble work, they embalm the 
memory of those who took the lead in it, in solemn obitua- 
ries adopted in ecclesiastical bodies; and that these deeds 
may not perish from among men, they send these memo- 
rials for sacred deposit in the Archives of the Presbyterian 
Historical Society, that all men to the end of time may 
know wherefore they were thus highly honored ! 



PEELIMINART CONSIDERATIONS. 473 



CHAPTER XIII. 

SLAVERY IN POLEMICS.— DIYINE REVELATIOK 

It seems almost to be a work of supererogation, at the 
present time, to ai-gue for or against Slavery in the United 
States ; to attempt to resolve questions with the pen which 
are in process of settlement by the sword, and which, 
before the ink we use is dry, may be determined forever. 
Our plan, however, would not be complete, unless w^e 
should give some attention to the reasonings by which the 
modern doctrines upon slavery are defended. 

We shall not endeavor to emulate either the eloquence 
or the argument of those men of Kentucky, some of them 
of a former day, whose writings upon slavery we have 
already given ; nor do we think the occasion calls for any 
thing to be said, or indeed that any thing can be said, 
against the special character and influence of the system, 
beyond what they have uttei-ed. Our argument will bear 
chiefly upon points brought to view in the literature of the 
rebellion, and will aim to combat the positions taken by its 
instigators and abettors. 

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 

We have given, at great length, in the chapter imme- 
diately preceding, the doctrines announced by those who 
defend negro. slavery as it exists in the South. It will be 
seen that the two propositions, numerically designated, 
which we have there laid down, are covered in every par- 
ticular, and even more than covered, by the authorities we 
have cited. It will be seen, moreover, that every position 



474 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

taken by these anthorities, is made to illustrate, apply to, 
and justify the Southern system of negro slavery. This is 
the specific and sole purpose for which their works are 
written and their reasonings elaborated. 

We do not propose to exhaust the entire argument by 
which these extravagant positions may be met. That' 
would require a volume instead of a chapter. So much 
has been wn-itten on this whole subject already, by able 
scholars, that it seems needless to waste many words upon 
it ; and yet, it will scarcely do to say that at this time of 
day these extraordinary emanations are not worth noticing. 
From the sources indicated, and by the authority of great 
names, they are still spread before the religions public, 
with glowing commendation, while those who dissent from 
these high priests of the Southern Oracle are freely called 
by " religious" men " npostates," " infidels," " heretics," 
"French Jacobins," and the like. These authoritative 
responses have an influence upon many minds who draw 
their inspiration through the channels which convey them. 
They should be brought to the test of truth. We pro- 
pose to notice only a feu^ of the main points made, and to 
present our reasons for dissenting from them. 

THE SCRIPTURES GROSSLY LIBELLED. 

As incidental to the subsequent argument, we notice, in 
passing, the monstrous assumption of Dr. Robinson, editor 
of The True Presbyterian., that the servitude among the 
Jews, in the time of Abraham and Moses, is the essenti-i? 
type of negro slavery in the Southern States, as the systems 
are judged by their respective "codes," and by the facts. 
He asserts this in terms, several times over; at*d yet, no 
greater libel upon the truth was ever put into human lan- 
guage. 

Let the reader first turn to the chapter where the paper 



THE SCRIPTURES GROSSLY LIBELLED. 475 

of the Committee of the Kentucky Synod sets forth the 
character of slavery in Kentucky, and notice the points 
made concerning the system, both as to the Imo and the 
facts, and remember that slavery in the Border States is 
always seen in its milder form as compared with the States 
farther South ; and then let him note that it is the system 
as it prevails throughout the slave States, as seen under 
their " slave codes," which Dr. Kobinson says is the 
counterpart of that which existed in the patriarchal and 
Mosaic ages, and which was sanctioned by the positive 
ordinances of God. Was ever a more palpable untruth 
uttered to deceive plain men ? Whether this is so may 
be seen by comparison. Our own ears have been greeted 
with the satisf iction which certain people have expressed 
with their condition in holding this relation under the 
slave laws, from readinsr these verv words in The True 
Presbyterian, and they have been led to believe that the 
venerated fathers of the Church who held a contrary opin- 
ion were ignorant of God's v/ord ; and we presume such 
unscrupulous dogmatism has beguiled and consoled many 
others in the same manner. 

There is no call for mincing words in matters of such 
vital moment, where the interests of the State, the honor 
of the Church, the truth of the Scriptures, and the personal 
duty of men are all concerned ; and hence we call such 
utterances by the only word which can properly charac- 
terize them. They are deliberate and positive libels upon 
the word and honor of God : and this we pledge ourselves 
to prove. The language in which they are uttered by Dr. 
Robinson is as follows : 

"It ^vill not do to attempt to parry the force of this redudio an 
ahsurdum, by saying that slavery under Abraham was not the same 
THING as by the slave code of the South, for we shall see a little far- 
ther on, that the ancient slavery was, in principle, just such as that 
21* 



476 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

ENACTED BY THE SLAVE CODE OF THE SOUTH NOW." Of Abrahamic 

times, he says: "The language of that era was as thoroughly per 
MiTTED BY THE INFLUENCE OF SLAVERY, as that of the Southern States 
now." Again: "Tlie civil code of Moses permitted and regulated 
slavery, in the main recognizing the same principles as the modern 
slave codes of the Soutliern States." Again: "The law of slavery 
in the Mosaic code, contemplates the slave as both a person and a 

CHATTEL, JUST AS THE SOUTHERN SLAVE CODE DOES. 

These declarations have one merit ; they are direct, clear, 
and unmistakable. Their demerit is, their total want of 
truth. 

POnSTTS OF DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE JEWISH AND 
SOUTHERN SYSTEMS. 

If any persons are so poorly acquainted with their Bibles 
and with tlie system of Southern slavery as to believe that 
the laws of the Jewish servitude and the " slave codes" of 
the Southern States are of "the same principles," we will 
point out to them a few characteristics of diiference. We 
are not, at this point, to deal with the argument by which 
the writer attempts to prop up his assumption; we are 
only concerned with the assumption itself It is a 
simple question of fact ; a matter of truth or falsehood as 
to the agreement or disagreement of these systems. And 
it will be borne in mind, that, in order to sustain the posi- 
tion which Dr. Robinson takes, it is necessary to show, that 
in regard to each and every one of the essential character- 
istics of the Southern " slave codes," there is an exact and 
full correspondency in the laws of the Jewish system. If 
there is a failure to make out this complete correspondency 
in any one particular his assumption falls to the ground. 

Among the radical principles in which the two systems 
differ are these. 

1. By Southern law, slaves are "chattels personal." 
This is the legal definition in terms. The code of South 



JEWISH AND SOLTHEKX SYSTEMS. 477 

Carolina says : " Slaves shall be deemed chattels personal, 
m the hands of their owners and possessors, and their exe- 
cutors, administrators, and assigns, to all intents, construc- 
tions, and purposes, whatsoever."* 

The Jewish system does not in this manner completely 
divest the bondman of his manhood. There is 710 statute 
in the Mosaic code so utterly dehumanizing as this, or 
which bears any correspondency with it. If so, let it be 
shown. We challenge its production.! 

2. By Southern law, a slave can own no property ; can- 
not control any of the avails of his own labor. This is ex- 
pressly denied him. The civil code of Louisiana says : " A 
slave is one who is in the power of a master to whom he 
belongs. The master may sell him, dispose of his person, 
his industry, and his labor. He can do nothing, possess 
nothing, nor acquire any thing, but what must belong to his 
master."! 

In the Jewish system, 710 statute thus prevented those 

* The most elaborate and authoritative work on slavery, recognized as setting forth 
the laiL\ is that of General Thomas R. K. Cobb, of Georgia, published in 1S5S, entitled 
"The Law of Negro Slavery in the United States." In defining slavery, he says: 
" Slavery, in its more usual and limited signification, is applied to all involuntary 
servitude, which is not inflicted as a punishment for crime. * * * It has, at some 
time, been incorporated into the social systemof every nation whose history has been 
deemed worthy of record. In the former condition the slave loses all personality: 
in the latter, while treated under the general class of things, he possesses various 
rights as a person, and is treated as such by the law." General Cobb was a lawyer of 
eminence, a brother of Howell Cobb; was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and 
a member of its General Assembly at New Orleans, in 185S ; and was killed in battle 
at Fredericksburg, Va., in December, 1862. 

t Dr. Miolziner, of Copenhagen, is spoken of as "the learned Jew," and as one of 
"the ablest writers upoo the Hebrew economy ;"' Heinrich Ewald, of Gottingen, as 
"a great authority in Hebrew Antiquities;" Prof. Saalschutz, of Konigsberg, as one 
"whose works on the Mosaic Polity are of the highest standing;" and Joseph Salva- 
dor, " the PLabbinical scholar of Paris ;" all " men versed in the Hebrew language and 
in Jewish customs." These eminent Hebraists agree in this — that "the law3 of 
Moses nowhere recognize the right of property in man, nor concede to the master ai* 
absolute proprietorship over the person of his servant." 

X General Cobb says: "Of the other great absolute right of a freeman, viz., the 
right of private projierty, the slave is entirely deprived. His person and his time 



478 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

in servitude from " acquiring" and " possessing" property. 
This alone settles the heaven-wide difference. But this is 
not all. There are statutes which inevitably imply that 
the Hebrew servant might and did acquire and hold prop- 
erty. 

3. By Southern law, the slave is doomed to hopeless 
ignorance. It is a penal offence to teach him to read or 
write ; even to teach him to read the word of God ; much 
less is any legal injunction found for his religious training. 
The exceptional cases of actual instruction, unless it be oral, 
are in direct contravention of law. 

No such statutory prohibition can be found regulating 
Jewish servitude. On the contrary, numerous statutes 
enjoin instruction in all religious duties, and open wide 
the door to all religions ordinances. It was a statutory 
offence against God and man for a Hebrew master to omit 
these things. Dr. Robinson himself gives the proof and 
illustration of this, in what he says of the regulations of 
the Jewish Church. 

4. In many of the slave codes of the South, — ^perhaps in 
all, — colored persons, whether bond or free, are prohibited 
from merely assembling for the w^orship of God, even to 
receive oral religious instruction, or from meeting for any 
other purpose, without the presence of a specified number 
of white persons.* 

There is no such statute as this regulating Jewish servi- 
tude. 

5. By Southern law, all slaves are vendible " property." 

being entirely the property of his master, whatever he may accumulate by his oivn 
labor, or is otherwise acquired by him, becomes immediately the property of hia 
master." — Law of Negro Slaccry. 

* Under this feature of the slave code, General Cobb gives a judicial decision 
touching the authority of the " patrol" in times of danger from insubordination : 
"In South Carolina, it was held, that under the authority to disperse unlawful 
assemblages of negroes, the patrol had no right to interfere with an open assemblage* 
for the purpose of religious worship, where white pemons were also assembled."—' 
Loajo of Negro Slavery. 



JEWISH AND SOUTHERN SYSTEMS. 4 79 

They are sold, by law, the same as mules, tobacco, and 
cotton. Without this feature of vendibility in the " slave 
codes,"— prevailing, so far as the law is concerned, univer- 
sa%,'in the South,— the system would be co;r.p:iratively 
worthless. Many families, and certain Border States, have 
found in this feature of the system one of the greatest 
sources of their wealth; and, for the sake of gain, masters 
sometimesse^/ their oid7i childr en, hegotten of slave mothers. 
This is 7iotorious. This is also according to law ; for, 
by the "codes," the child follows the condition of its 
mothev--partus sequitur ventrem—^nd. every one having 
amj "black blood" belongs to the proscribed class. 
General Cobb, in his " Law of Negro Slavery," says : 
" The issue and descendants of slaves, in the maternal line, 
are slaves. The rule has been adopted in all the States.''' 
This domestic traffic in slaves has been the life, profit, and 
power of the system. Without it, slavery in the extreme 
South, where it has been most profitable, and exerted its 
greatest power, at home and throughout the country, 
would shrivel and perish. 

On the other hand, the Hebrew servitude was icholly 

destitute, both in law and fact, of this feature of vendibility, 

except in specified cases ; as for crime, debt, and one other 

instance. The fact that these were specified cases, shows 

that the Jewish system knew nothing of that feature which 

is so prominently stamped upon the Southern system in 

practice, and which midiQV positive statute law may be ur.i- 

versal. This characteristic of the Southern " codes" is 

noiohere found in the Mosaic law. While Hebrews 

might " buy" of surrounding nations (in a sense which it is 

not, at this point, our purpose to consider), there is no 

evidence, either in law or fact, that any Jew ever sold, m 

the way it is commonly done in the South, and legally 

sanctiotied ms universal (except in the specifiel cases), a 



480 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

single bondsman to any other Jew or to a heathen. If 
this is denied, let the law and the case be shown. But 
yet, in order to make the Mosaic '' code" pargXlel with the 
Southern, it must be shown that the vendibility of Jewish 
bondmen was, by the statute^ universal. This is the vital 
pomt of correspondency to be shown ; and this does not 
exist. 

6. By Southern law, a slave cannot be a witness in any 
case against a white person. His master, or any other 
w^hite person, may maltreat him in the extreme, — may 
toilfally murder liim^ — in the presence of tifty slaves who 
are as capable of testifying to the fact as any white person, 
and yet their testimony is worthless, in lam.^ 

Even Roman slavery, which many have regarded as the 
worst system that ever existed, was better than tiie South- 
ern on this point. The Emperor Constantine not only 
allowed slaves to be witnesses, but gave those their free- 
dom, by an edict, who tesiitied against fraud, adultery, 
and certain other offences where freemen were involved. 

* " Where a slave is killed, the presumption of law is the same as in other cases of 
homicide, that it was done maliciously. On account of the frequent and necessarily 
private relation of master and slave, remote most generally from the presence and 
view of .iny white person competent to be a icitnesif, this presumption may and must 
often operate to the prejudice of the slayer, there being no means of proving the 
provocation given. Under this view, the Act of South Carolina provides, that where 
the homicide is committed, and no competent witness is present at the time to testify 
to the whole transaction, the affi^davit of the accused is admitted before the jury^ 
esL'planatory and exculpatory of his conduct on the occaK-ion.''^ — "It would seem 
that from the very nature of slavery, and the necessarily degraded social position of 
the slave, many acts would extenuate the homicide of a slave, and reduce the offence 
to a lower grade, which would not constitute a legal provocation if done by a white 
person. Thus, in The State v. Tackett. it was held competent for one charged with 
the murder of a slave to give in evidence that the deceased was turbulent, and 
insolent, and impudent to white persons.''^ — •' On account of the perfectly unpro- 
tected and helpless position uf the slave, when his master is placed in opposition to 
him: not being allowed to accumulate property, with which to provide means for 
the prosecution of his rights; his mouth being closed us a witness in a court of 
justice; his hands being tied, even for his own defence, except in the extreme cases 
before alluded to ; his time not being at his service, even for the purpose of procur- 
ing' testimony," &c. — Cobb's Law of Nogro Slavery . 



JEWISH AND SOUTHERX SYSTEMS. 481 

No statutory prohibition of bondmen being witnesses 
can be found in the Mosaic code. Although there may be 
no statute authorizing testimony, as explicit as that of Con- 
stantine, yet the whole character of the Jewish system 
would naturally lead us to presume that those in servitude, 
otherwise competent, were allowed to testify against crime, 
whoever might be the offender. But the absence of any 
such positive, prohibitory statute, as is found in all the 
Southern " codes," marks the essential difference in the 
systems. 

The foregoing, among many other differences in the two 
systems here compared, relate chiefly to the individual. 
There are strongly marked differences which relate to their 
social character. 

v. By Southern law, marriage among slaves is a nullity. 
It has no legal recognition, existence, or protection. The 
master is authorized to separate, at pleasure and forever, 
those who live together under the name of husband and 
wife. This is often done in fact, for pecuniary gain and 
from other motives,* 

On the other hand, the statutes of the Mosaic code regu- 
lating marriage are full and explicit, both positive and 
prohibitory, and these statutes were binding upon all 
classes. In the South, such unions as are formed among 
the slaves are often within the degrees of consanguinity 
and affinity forbidden by the Mosaic laws. 

8. The whole family constitution as God made it^ is 
utterly blotted out among slaves, by Southern law. The 
slave offspring of these teeming millions are the result of 
a systematic, perpetual, universal violation of the seventh 

*"The inability of the slave to contract extends to the marriage contract, and 
hence there is no recognized marriage relation in law between slaves." "Tho 
contract of marriage not being recognized among slaves, of course none of its conse- 
quences follow from the contubernal state existing between them." — Cobb's Law of 
Negro Slavery, 



482 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

command of the Decalogue ; and this by the positive legis- 
lation of Christian States. These offsprinij may be torn 
from those who have borne them, and parents and children 
are often thus separated forever.* 

Jewish servitude knew nothing of this wholesale and 
utter sweeping away of the most important institution God 
has given for the social, civil, and religious well-being of 
mankind. To charge this feature of the universal slave 
system of the South upon the Jewish system, — and, indeed, 
the same of every other point noticed, — and to say that it 
is of God^ is to utter both falsehood and blasphemy. 

The foi^egoing points show what Southern slavery is as 
a system • not the evils incidental to it, but whnt it is in 
its vital essence, and how it works, by km ; evils which 
are inherent in it and inseparable from it, as both the 
General As<emldy of 1818 and the Committee of the Synod 
of Kentucky affirm. The system, as such, could not exist 
a day without these radical legal features. 

9. Our final point, therefore, in this comparison, is, that 
this system, by Southern law, is made perpetual. All slaves, 
legally considered, must look upon their posterity as 
doomed to it to the latest generation. 

The Jewish system, to say the least of it, provided for 
the freedom of a portion of those in servitude at the year 
of Jubilee, and of another portion in the seventh year ; 
while many able scholars (which we barely mention as a 
fact) contend that provision was made for the freedom of 
all who were held in servitude at the Jubilee. 

On the other hand, many of the slave codes of the South 

* "'The marriage relation not being recognized among slaves, none of the relative 
rights and duties arising therefrom, belong strictly to the slave. * * * We may 
make the same assertion in reference to the relation of parent and child. In some 
of the States, both of these relations are so far recognized by the Legislature, as to 
provide by statute against their disruption la public sales.''' — Cobb's Law of Jf^egro 
Slavery^ 



PEOFESSOEIAL JUDGMENT OF IKE CASE. 483 

make it next to impossible for individual masters, when so 
disposed, to give freedom to their slaves ; while others pro- 
hibit emancipation altogether, making it a statutory offence. 
There is thus a wide legal difterence between the sys- 
tems concerning emancipation. 

PROFESSORIAL JUDGMENT OF THE CASE. 

But we need go no further in this enumeration, though 
there are other points of marked contrast. This is the 
SYSTEM of the South which Dr. Robinson not only has the 
hardihood to approve., but which he has the unblushing 
effrontery to declare is of " the same principles" as that 
which existed in the time of Abraliam and Moses, and 
which Qod incorporated into His Church! For a moie 
full delineation of it, — as a system in practice.^ inevitably 
resulting from such "codes," — we again ask the reader to 
recur to the paper of the Committee of the Synod of Ken- 
tucky, and refresh his mind with what they set forth as the 
inherent essence of the system, as seen in real life 
among themselves, and then he will make some small 
approach towards understanding what that specific tJdng 
is which Dr. Robinson applauds and commends, and which 
he declares is taken into close fellowship by the Head of 
the Church ! 

If we were called upon to resolve the moral phenome- 
non presented in this case, we might, perhaps, adequately 
do it by citing what a distinguished Professor of Theology 
has written. The Princeton Meview^ for January, 1861, 
in an article on The State of the Country^ says : " Most 
men, when they condemn slavery, have certain slave laws 
in their minds ; laws which forbid the slaves to be in- 
structed, which declare they cannot contract marriage, or 
which authorize the forcible separation of husbands and 
wives, parents and children. But Southern Christians 



484 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

condemn these laws as heartily as we do. Ixdeed no 

MAX CAN BE A ChEISTIAX WHO DOES NOT CONDEMN THEM." 

Dr. Hodge here lays down the abstract principle. We 
shall not make the concrete application ; but we abridge 
no man's liberty. 

PEOSLAVERY ARGUMENTS EXAMINED. 

"We come now to the arguments for slavery. We shall 
notice only some of the more prominent, and can give 
them V>ut a comparatively brief examination. We shall 
take np those founded on Scripture first, and afierwards 
those drawn from the Law of Xature. The latter, indeed, 
will require no examination, provided negro slavery in the 
South can be sustained by the former ; for if we have a 
'' Thus s.iith the Lord" for it, in a written revelation, it is 
of little consequence to interrogate the less clear light of 
nature and reason. 

What, then, do the Scriptures teach ? At the outset, 
let the point which the advocates of the system must 
establish be distinctly kept in mind. They must show 

THE DIRECT AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE FOR SOUTHERN 

NEGRO SLAVERY. They claim to be able to do this. They 
are confident they have done it. They deem those to be 
stupid who do not see it, and "infidel" who do not ac- 
knowledge it. We must then hold their arguments to 
this specific point. 

So far as the present issue is concerned, it is wholly 
immaterial what the Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testaments may teach about the systems of their day, 
unless those teachings sanction negro slavery in the 
Southern States with the same kind and the same fulness 
of authority by which they sanction the Jewish and 
Roman systems of their own times, and concerning which 
it is conceded they directly speak. We may, — and of 



THE ARGUMENT FROM THE DECALOGUE. 485 

course we freely do, — admit as true every thing of fact 
and principle which is actually taught in the Scriptares 
concerning those systems ; and yet, all which is thus true 
concerning them will go for absolutely nothing in the 
present argument, unless the nexus which it is claimed 
infallibly unites the modern system to the ancient, under 
the sanction of these di\due teachings, is made as clear as 
the light. 

Premising these plain points as fundamental, we take 
up several specific arguments separately. The order of 
examination, though not material, suggests, naturally, that 
which is first in importance. 

THE ARGUMENT FROM THE DECALOGUE. 

It is insisted by all Southern extremists that slavery is 
ordained in the Decalogue. Any references we here make 
to their language will be to the quotations given in a pre- 
ceding chapter. Says Dr. Thornwell: "God sanctions it 
in both tables of the Decalogue." Dr. Robinson : " In 
two precepts of this law, — the fourth, concerning the 
Sabbath, and the tenth, concerning covetousness, — slaverj 
is again recognized as existing in the Church by command, 
in reference to man-servants and maid-servants." Dr. 
Smyth : "■ God has actually embodied slavery in his moral 
law, and by there guarding, and protecting, and regulating 
it, has made it appertain to the present condition of 
humanity." 

The Decalogue is permanent and universal in its au- 
thority. It is the law for man as man. If it "embodies" 
and " sanctions" the slavery for which Southern men con- 
tend, the argument is ended. The claim that it does, 
rests upon the meaning of two words. That meaning is 
assumed, in the quotations we have made, rather than 
established. It is, that the terms in the original, ren- 



486 SLAVEliY IN POLEMICS. 

dered " raan-servant" and "maid-servant," in the fourth 
and tenth commandments, mean, necessarily, slaves, in the 
2ense of Southern slave law. If the claim does not cover 
this, it is of no consequence in the present discussion. If 
it does cover and sustain it, we give up the point. 

What then do these words mean ? This is more or less 
a matter of opinion and exegesis, in which men differ. 
Much sbolarsliip has been expended to ascert:dn the truth. 
We shall give eminent Jewish authorities, rather than our 
own opinion. 

The Hebrew term rendered " man-servant," in the Deca- 
logue, is JEhed. Remarking upon this word, Dr. Mielziner, 
before mentioned, the eminent Jewish scholar of Copen- 
hagen, says, that it is " a name common to all who stood 
in a dependent or subordinate relation ;" that it " has not 
the degrading meaning which we connect with the word 
' slave' or ' bondman,' but often has the more mild signi- 
fication, which we associate, in certain relations, with the 
term ' servant.' " Prof. Saalschiitz, of Konigsberg, says : 
that " the lanojuaGfe of the Hebrews has no word for sticr- 
matizing by a degrading appellation one class of those 
who owe service, and distinguishing them from the rest 
as ' slaves,' bat only one term for all who are bound to 
render service to others. For males, this word is Ehed, 
servant, or 7nan-servant ; properly, laborer ; for females, 
Shifchah, Ama, 7naid-servant, maidy* 

One of the most earnest advocates of a former day for 
the Scriptural authority for slavery in the South, — so far 
as deduced from the meaning of one of the words in 
question, as found in the Decalogue and elsewhere, — in 
noticing an objection to his view, says : " It is said, the 
Hebrew word JSbed, translated sometimes servant, some- 

* Mielziner, Die Verhaltnisse ; Saalschiitz, Z)a« Jlosaische Eecht ; as cited by 
Dr. Thompson in his " Christ, and Emany 



THE AKGUMENT FKOM THE DECALOGUE. 487 

times man-servajit^ and sometimes bondservant^ does not 
mean a slave, but only a worker^ one who is employed for 
a time, and even a relation of service of a liigbly honor- 
able kind." He then makes this admission: "The word 
Ebed is translated as above, and in itself properly signifies 
a worker, a laborer^ a person who does work of cuty kind 
at all^ for another person."* This admission is all that is 
desired, and perfectly agrees with the eminent Jewish 
scholars referred to above. 

If tlien the two words, found in the Decalogue, on which 
Southern men rest the whole argument for negro slavery, 
from that source^ may have this wide latitude of meaning 
which the ablest scholars in Jewish learning give them, all 
the systems of slavery may perish throughout the earth, 
and no system ever again arise to curse the world, and yet 
this part of the Decalogue concerning "man-servants" and 
"maid-servants" would be just as applicable to society as 
ever. It would still be the law for mankind everywhere, 
and be appropriate wherever there were " laborers," or 
" workers," or " servants," who were yet in every sense 
freemen^ and in no sense slaves. 

An argument is pressed by some writers, drawn from 
the tenth commandment, which is not confined to the 
meaning of the words in question, but is deemed to be 
confirmatory of the essential meaning which it is claimed 
those words have. For example, it is said, that " man- 
servant" and "maid-servant" must indicate those who 
were held as " property," for covetousness, the sin here 
forbidden, always has reference to "property." The 
premises here are false. A person may "covet" that 
which is another's, w'hether it be his property or not. In 
point of fact this is often done. Many a person, in daily 
life, violates the tenth commandment, by coveting the 

* '-Thy Integrity of our National Union vs. Abolitionism," by Dr. G-eo. Junkin. 



488 SLATEEY IN POLEiriCS. 

"man-servant" or "maid-servant" who is but a hired 
laborer. More than this, — if the prohibition to " covet" a 
servant^ in the tenth commnn(]ment, necessarily implies 
that the servant is " property," or a " slave" in the sense 
of Southern law, then the prohibition to " covet" a " wife," 
in the same commandment, implies that she also is a 
" slave" in the same sense. This is simply absurd. We 
readily grant that under the Jewish law, under the 
Roman law, under English law, and perhaps under law in 
every country in the world, the "wife" is, in a certain 
sense, the " property" of her husband. But who will pre- 
tend from this that there is a parallel in the condition of 
the " wife" under the Decalogue, and the condition of the 
" slave" under Southern law ? And yet if the tenth com- 
mandment does not make the " wife" a " slave" in the 
sense of Southern law, no more does it make a "man- 
servant" or a "maid-servant" a "slave" in that sense. 
But if it does not make the " servant" a " slave" in that 
sense, then it makes him a " slave" in no sense applicable 
to the present case. 

THE ABEAHAMIC AND MOSAIC SYSTEM. 

Besides the Decalogue, there are two sources of author- 
ity for Southern slavery claimed from the Old Testament. 
One is, the system of servitude as regulated under Abra- 
ham ; the other, as authorized by the code of Moses. For 
our purpose we may notice them together. 

The specific point to be made out by our opponents is, 
that these regulations afford precisely the smne sanction 
for Southern slaveiy that they do for the ancient system. 
We here pass by, entirely, the usual facts and reasonings 
urged to show that the Old Testament servitude was an 
essentially different system from that of Southern slavery, 
in all its elemental principles, designs, and actual "ivorking. 



THE ABRAHAMIC AND MOSAIC SYSTEM. 489 

We have already stated certain points of difference. We 
pass by, also, the reasons for which many have supposed 
that system was established, or allowed and regulated. 
For the argument's sake, we here admit all that is claimed 
for the ancient system, as drawn from the two sources 
named. 

What, then, was the fundamental authority for that 
system, both as to matter and form ? It was sanctioned 
by the most direct and positive authority of God. The 
form of the sanction was through express revelation, em- 
bodying commands, covenants, and both positive and 
prohibitory statutes; by the several covenants made at 
different times with Abraham, and by the numerous 
statutes of the code of Moses. This, we presume, is the 
utmost wliich any one has ever claimed for the Jewish 
system, and this, for the sake of the argument, we at 
present concede. 

Now, all we demand is this : Show us the same fulness 
of authoiity for Southern slavery, in matter and form, and 
we instantly yield tlie ground. Give us positive Divine 
sanction, thiough express revelation ; give us the com- 
mands, covenants, statutes, and ordinances, — or even one 
of any of all these, — which as specifically designate negro 
slavery in the South as do those of the Old Testament 
unquestionably designate the ancient system, — that is, let 
these commands designate the race of Southern masters 
with the same definiteness that Jewish masters were desig- 
nated, and point out the particular people who may and 
those who may not be enslaved, as is done in the Jewish 
code -do all this, and we will say no more. But until this 
is done, the indispensable nexus is wanting. Until this is 
done, it is just as reasonable to send us to the statutes of 
the Tycoon as to the statutes of Moses for authority for 
Southern slavery. 



490 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

We have never been able to see, — and we sincerely 
desire some one to explain, — how it is that the Southern 
system is necessarily hitched on to the Mosaic, so that the 
ancient inevitably draws the modern along by its authority. 
This is a thing which is assumed. We insist that it shall 
hQ proved. The only semblance of a connection between 
the two which Dr. Robinson in his long argument attempts 
to make out, expressly in order to show that the Southern 
system is authorized by the ancient, is, that in their 
" principles," tried by their respective " codes," the two 
systems are "the same." That he deems this the vital 
and turning point in the case, is seen in the fact that he 
presses this declaration at four different stages of his 
argument, in nearly the same words, all of which we have 
given. But we have already shown that this assumed 
sameness is utterly groundless. 

AUTHOEITY IN CONTRAST. 

But suppose, for the sake of the argument, that we admit 
this assumed identity in " principles," — admit that these 
" codes" are, in every characteristic, precisely the same ; 
that the Southern is an exact copy, word for word, of the 
Mosaic, — still, no shadow of sanction for the Southern sys- 
tem can result from such identity. It is an identity in 
AUTHORITY which must be established ; but tJtat does not 
result from an identity in " principles." If we look at the 
real sanction for the two systems, — admitting, for the 
moment, that they are alike in " principles,"^ — we shall see 
the world-wide difference between them in this vital matter 
of authority. 

For the Jewish, there is this authority : God Almighty 
did, by express revelation, Himself ordain a code for the 
benefit of a specific peoj^le^ Jewish masters, "chosen" by 



AUTHORITY IN CONTRAST. 491 

Himself ; and He did also, by express revelation, designate 
the people who should serve them under that code. 

Yox the Southern, there is this authority : Southern 
Legislators do, without revelation, themselves ordain this 
code, four thousand years afterwards, for the benefit of 
another specific people^ Southern masters, "chosen" by 
themselves ; and they do also, without revelation, desig- 
nate the people who shall serve them under that code. 

Now, can Southern masters, by virtue of this identity 
in the '' principles" of the respective codes, claim diving 
sanction for slavery? This assumed identity is nothing 
to the purpose. It is, as before stated, an identity in 
authority which must be established, — which shall em- 
brace it in form and substance, as directly from. God^ — or 
Southern slavery can receive no support from the Jewish 
system. Such identity of authority, no man can show ; 
nor any other kind of authority by which the Southern 
system can be sheltered under the Jewish. Direct Reve- 
lation is what is demanded to meet the case. 

If this total want of Divine sanction for Southern slavery, 
— in the matter and form stated, — be not conclusive 
against its being authorized by the ordinances regulating 
Mosaic servitude, then this result follows of logical ne- 
cessity : that any system of slavery which men may choose 
to inaugurate, — at any time, in any place, among an)' peo- 
ple as masters, over any people as slaves, by any means, 
in any manner, from any motive, — may immediately claim, 
on precisely the same grounds, when once fully established 
among a people, the same Divine authority, and must at 
once be acknowledged as coming under this broad shield 
of the Divine protection ; and he who does not admit all 
this of any system " got up to order," is, in the language 
of Southern extremists, nn " infidel," an " apostate," and 
" blasphemes the God of Israel !" This is the inevitable 
22 



492 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

logical result of the position taken and the argument pre- 
sented. 

We deem the foregoing considerations conclusive against 
the assumption that Southern negro slavery is of necessity 
sheltered under the ordinances, covenants, statutes, and 
commands, of the Old Testament system of servitude, and 
may therefore challenge for itself Divine sanction on such 
grounds. Make the " principles" of the ancient system to em- 
brace just what you please, — covering every fact which the 
Scriptures declare, — and yet, if these covenants and statutes 
do not, t(pon the very face of them^ show the Divine and 
direct designation of negro slavery in the South, as clearly 
as they designate the Jewish system, they no more author- 
ize Southern slavery than they authorize the system of the 
Algerine corsairs. 

THE NEW TESTAMENT ARGUMENT. 

The argument for Southern slavery drawn from the New 
Testament, rests upon a different basis from that drawn 
from the Old. It is not claimed that ordinances and cove- 
nants of precisely the same character as those regulating 
Jewish servitude, are found for the system of Greek and 
Roman slavery of the time of Christ and the Apostles. It 
is insisted, however, that they recognized it as existing, in 
the State and in the Church, in their day ; that they gave 
no command for its removal from either, but gave direc- 
tions for the duties of masters and servants ; and that it is 
placed in the same category with the matrimonial and 
parental relations, and is, therefore, like them, an " ordi- 
nance of God," of permanent and equal authority : from 
all which is drawn the broad conclusion that the negro 
slavery of the South is a lawful system, and is on like 
grounds an " ordinance of God." These points, it will be 
seen, are covered by the quotations previously given. 



SLAVERY HANGING BY A WORD. 403 

As in the argument on the other branches of the subject, 
so here, we shall pnss by nmny points wliicli are often 
effectively made in opposition to some of the positions 
taken and the conclusions reached in favor of slavery. 

SLAVERY HANGING BY A WORD. 

All who have paid any attention to discussions of the 
subject, know that much has boen written upon the mean- 
ins: of a sino-le Greek word. Dotclos, in New Testament 
discussions, has figured as largely as Ebed, in the Old. 

JJr. Robinson inquires, in tlie article to whicli v\'e have 
before referred, " What can be more absurd, than the 
dogma of white-eravattel infidelity, that ' servant' (doulos), 
in Scripture, means a hireling, or aj^prentice, not a slave ?" 
This is his entire argument upon the point, in an elaborate 
paper in which he says : '*• We have aimed to present at one 
view an outline of the whole argument against the anti- 
slavery tlogmas, as gathered from the inspired teaching of 
the Church in all these eras," embracing both the Old and 
New Testament dispensations. 

We would remind Dr. Robinson that his distinguished 
friend, Dr. Thoinwell, always wore a " white cravat." He 
should therefore" regard that part of his argument as dis- 
posed of. So far as there is any point in his inquiry about 
the meaning of the word in question, we propose to meet 
it with something better than a sneer ; something, too, that 
will probably have more weight with him than any thing 
we could say. 

PROF. LEWIS ON DOULOS. 

Prof. Tayler Lewis, occupying the chair of Greek in 
Union College, is an eminent scholar; and from a com- 
mendatory notice of an article of his which has ap|>eared 
in The True Presbyterian^ we presume its editor may be in 



494: SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

a stite of mind to heed what be says about doulos. He 
says rtfthe Professor: "It m;xy bo a weakne?s of ours, but 
we confess to a particular sympatliy with, and pleasure in, 
the curious, semi-platouic and scholarly, but earnest and 
sou!-reaching method in which Prof T.iyler Lewis always 
lorites of the Scrij^tweSj and their interjV'etatioji.^'' 

Upon this, we are certainly justified in commending 
Prof. Lewis's "interpretation," which is "always" so valu- 
able, to Dr. Robinson. We do not remember the color of 
Prof. Lewis's cravat, but we heard an apdress from him in 
New York some years since, and he then had on a blue 
coat with gilt buttons. He thus discourseth : 

Much learning has been exhibited in respect to the word douloi. 
There is no doubt that it may denote the servile condition. It is equally 
clear that it is a term of government, and may signify a subject from 
the highest to the lowest rank. It may imply both ideas. But there 
is a word in the Greek language that has the one, the lowest one, ex- 
clusivdy and forever. It is always servile. It is ever used to denote 
slaves as jnoperty, and in a property sense. As thus employed, it is 
exceedingly common in tlie classical Greek — cdivays used, we may say, 
when the servile notion is to be expressed simple and unmixed. It must 
have been very familiar throughout Asia Minor, and wherever Paul 
found the reality or the semblance to tlie relation. It is the word andra 
podon. It is of the neuter form, to express vileness, to denote that that 
to which it is applied is regarded as a thing or cliattel, without will, or 
a true acknowledged personality. When slaves are statistically enume- 
rated as property, they are called andra iioda^ just as cattle or flocks are 
called by similar neuters, to kteno, ktenea, ktemala, pi'^'ohata. It is an in- 
teresting query : Why is this servile word, so common in Athenian 
Greek, never found in the New Testament? It is because there is no idea 
acknowledged there lohich it coidd properly express. 

We now give Dr. Robinson all the benefit he can derive 
from doidos^ witli all the aid he can get from the entire 
coterie of those who claim that tlie word necessarily means 
a "slave;" and we leave it wholly to him to choose the 
color of their cravats. We trust that Prof. Lewis's 



PROP. LEWIS OX SLAVE-TRADERS. 495 

"scholarly" performance may j^i'Oyg " sonl-reaching" to the 
whole of them. 

PROF. LEWIS ON SLAVE-TRADERS. 

There is an exegesis from Prof. Lewis, following the 
above extract, whicli is further serviceable here. It knocks 
certain declaimers for Southern slavery, and those who 
denounce man-stealing^ completely " off their pins," and 
turns the arojument asjainst them with a force which 
should make them wince. The Professor says : 

There is one word used in the New Testament, a derivative of this 
word (1 Tim. i. 10), but in such a way that 'it wiU do the man who is 
hunting Scriptural pleas for slavery no good. It is andra podistts, ren- 
dered 'nian- stealer^ but clearly wrong. The form of the ending shows 
that it does not denote an occasional act, an occasional theft, but a 
business, an occupation Awlra 2^odistes is not a man-thief, but a man- 
trader, a SLAVE-TRADER, or a SLAVE-DEALER ; One whose business is to 
sell an andra podon : just as kermatistes (John ii. 14) does not mean money- 
stealer, hut money-seller, broker, "money-changer." So in the Memora- 
bilia, Socrates metaphorically calls the Sophists who took pay for their 
lectures, andra podufcs, men who sold themselves for servile hire. Look 
at the association in which this term is found (1 Tim. i. 10), and then 
judge whether the idea of that thing in which the andra podisies dealt, 
or the idea of human property, could ever have been applied by the 
Apostle to a man, much less to a Christian brother. What an ungodly 
crew! — "the unholy and profane, murderers, fornicators, slave-tra- 
ders, liars, perjurers, and all else that is opposed to pure doctrine." 

Who does not remember to have heard this passage 
often quoted from Timothy to show direct conclemuation 
by Paul of the practice charged upon certain men for en- 
ticing away slaves from the South, calling them "men- 
stealers !" We are not defending theft ; nor do we rel'er 
to this passage to justify the practice chai-ged. "Let 
every tub stand on its own bottom." We refer to it to 
show' that it has nothing to do with condemning tbat 
practice. But it has much to do with another thing. It 



496 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

condemns men-traders. It is a bolt wielded by the Apos- 
tle Paul, under the guide of inspiration, which crushes at 
one blow the -whole domestic slave-trade^ and all concerned 
i)^ it^ — to say nothing of the foreign slave-trade, — on the 
ground claimed by all tlie advocates of Southei-n slavery, 
that these teachings of the Apostle bear as directly on 
that system as they did upon the Greek and Roman 
slavery of his time ; a domestic slave-trade which is the 
very life and power of the whole system^ and out of which 
certain of the Border States have coined millions of 
wealth. This is another " scholarly" performance, which 
we hopo also may prorve " soul-reaching" to all who may 
need the benefit of it. 

We now leave Dr. Robinson in company with his doulos^ 
and we place alongside of him the andra podon, the andra 
podistes, and the Apostle Paul ; the latter a '^ noble old 
Roman citizen." We do not know the color of Paul's 
cravat, nor the color of that of any of these Greek gentle- 
men; so we cannot tell whether their company will be 
agreeable or otherwise. 

We cannot close this part of the subject Avithout giv- 
ing another extract from Prof. Lewis. He is speaking of 
the use proslavery men make of some of Paul's teachings ; 
and the sarcasm will apply to all, but especially to Pro- 
fessors Morse and Christy, The True Presbyterian, and 
all others who with them (and we do not know of any 
exceptions) deem slavery an essential antecedent to the 
most successful evangelization of a " barbarous" race : 

And now, to take these holy things, and make from them an argu- 
ment in favor of slavery as it exists in the United States, of cotton 
growing slavery, our trafficking, mercenary, properly-daiming slave r^--, 
that will sell a man, his children, and his children's children, for its 
own worldly gain, and then content itself with the poor, conscience- 
soothing plea, that perhaps he may, somehow, get Christianized in the 
process ! It is rank sacrilege. 



SLAVERY A.MOXG THE REL VTIOXS. 497 



SLAVERY AMOXG THE RELATIONS. 

The position in which slavery is mentioned by the 
Apostles, among certain recognized and permanent rela- 
tions in society, is deemed by many the most formidable 
argument in its favor. It is presented by all the advocates 
of the Southern system, and is regarded as conclusive and 
overwhelming. It is substantially this : that slavery, in 
the New Testament, is placed on an equality, as to au- 
thority and permanency, with the civil, matrimonial, and 
parental relations, as, with them, " an ordinance of God." 
This claim, taken in connection with the conceded fact 
that injunctions are given to both masters and servants, 
as well as to the persons filling the other relations, is 
deemed as presenting a valid and unanswerable sanction 
for Southern slavery. It is the argument from the greater 
to the less ; from the acknowledged authority of three 
relations, — the civil, matrimonial, and parental, — to the 
authority of a fourth, the servile. As they are classed 
together, and the duties of each are specified, their authority 
is equal, and the relation in each case permanent. That is 
the argument. 

Says Dr. Ross : " Slavery is of God," and " Slavery is 
ordained of God ;" as between master and servant, " it is 
a relation belonging to the same category as those of hus- 
band and wife, parent and child." Says Dr. Thornwell : 
"' The Apostles are explicit in inculcating the duties which 
sprung from both sides of the relation." Speaking at 
length of the four relations. Prof. Morse calls them, " the 
social system which God has ordained." Dr. Robinson : 
'' The duties of the relation of master and servant are dis- 
cussed in common with the duties of parent and child, 
husband and wife," The True Presbyteriaii : " The 
Saviour Himself accepted slavery as being equally of God 



498 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

with civil government, marriage, and tlie parental relation." 
And so say they all. 

THE EEDUCTIO AD ABSUKDUM. 

The exalted position here given to slavery involves 
these logical absurdities: (l.) It makes slavery an essen- 
tial and universal element of society. (2.) It makes 
emancipation a sin. 

These are inevitable deductions from the doctrine main- 
tained. We no longer wonder, therefore, that men wlio 
hold the doctrine can write books, like Mr. Fitzhugh, of 
Virginia, on "The Failure of Free Society," nor that 
among certain Southern men, as Drs. Palmer, Thornw^ell, 
and Armstrong, there should have been such lamentations 
of mourning and sorrow over the condition of things in 
the Free States, concerning which, however, they know 
so little. We are no longer surprised that they should 
wish to make slavery universal. We no longer wonder 
that this stupendous rebellion is prosecuted in the interest 
of this doctrine; for the institution it defends is one of the 
very pillars of the whole social fabric, of the family, of the 
State, and of the Church. Let us glance at these two 
points. 

SLAVERY UNIVERSALLY ESSENTIAL. 

1. The doctrine propounded upon these relations 
makes slavery an essential and universal element of 
society. How can it be otherwise, if it is in all respects 
equal to the matrimonial, parental, and civil relations ? 
Writers generally have considered three of these relations 
as "ordained of God," viz., the civil, or that of ruler and 
ruled ; the connubial, or that of husband and wife ; the pa- 
rental, or that of parent and child ; that these three belong 
to society universally, as God designed it, and are essential 



SLAVERY UNIVERSALLY ESSENTIAL. 499 

to the existence^ as well as to the well-being, of mankind in 
a social state ; and that these three are all which God has 
directly "ordained" for that end. But our modern 
pliilosophers make a fourth, the servile^ which they pl.ice 
in " the same category." We do not see, therefore, on 
this basis, why slavery is not essential to the very exist- 
ence of society, in the form in which God has authorized 
and organized the social state. 

Can society be maintained without civil government ? — 
or without marriage ? — or without the parental relation ? 
Xo Christian will pretend it. Nor, upon this theory, can 
it be maintained without slavery. Strike down any one 
of the other relations, and society perishes. Blot out civil 
government, and anarchy reigns and society is in ruins. 
Destroy marriage, and the race becomes extinct, or uni- 
vers.d concubinage must perpetuate it ; and in either case, 
destruction to the parental relation is the result. So, also, 
upon this theory, society can no more be perpetuated 
without slavery than without these other relations, for 
it is equally with them an " or<linance of God," and in 
" the same category." This is the inevitable logical 
result from the premises ; and it demonstrates the perfect 
absurdity of giving slavery that position among the 
authoritative and permanent relations of society. 

But is it said, that all that is meant is, that slavery is 
merely a universally admissible relation? Then we ask, in 
reply : Is civil government merely an admissible institu- 
tion, that may be continued or dispensed with at pleasure ? 
Is marriage, as an institution or relation, merely admissi- 
ble ; and may it be set aside altogether for the institution 
of "free love ?" May the parental relation be supplanted 
by any substitute which would result from overthrowing 
the matrimonial? Not one of these three institutions, 
involving these relations, is merely nchnisnble in the 
22* 



600 SLAVERY I?f POLEMICS. 

Divine organization of society. It cannot he organized 
and perpetuated^ as God designed it, without them. Tliey 
are each and all enjoined as essential to its existence and 
perpetuity. Then, of logical necessity, on the ground now 
claimed, slavery is also enjoined, as a universal, permanent, 
and essential element, in the Divine organization and con- 
tinuance of society. This conclusion is unavoidable ; or, 
the premise that slavery is an "ordinance of God," in 
" the same category" with these other relations, is alto- 
gether untenable. 

EMANCIPATION A SIN. 

2. So, also, of logical necessity, this doctrine makes 
emancipation a sin. One of the things which is always 
insisted upon by proslavery writers is, that the New Tes- 
tament is utterly silent about emancipation. Well, let it 
be granted ; and then what follows ? If slavery is an 
'-': ordinance of God" in the sense that marriage is, what 
right have we, by emancipation, to destroy the relation 
essential to it, in any case, without express revealed 
authority from God ? To do so is sin. Can we set aside 
marriage, in any case, by sundering the relation of hus- 
band and wife, except upon the ground for which the 
Scriptures expressly provide, without heinous- sin ? Can 
we sever the parental relation without sin? Can we 
overturn lawful civil government without sin ? Are not 
all these essential to society, and " ordained of God ?" 
No more can we, upon the doctrine claimed, set aside 
slavery without sin ; neither, on the one hand, by procla- 
mation, or l:iw, or military power, or by any other wliole- 
s lie measures ; nor, on the other, in any individual 
case. To do this in any way or to any extent, without 
an explicit "Thus saith the Lord," from His word, 
either expressly permissive or directory, is to sin against 



INVASION OF god's preeogative. 501 

God with a high hand, if slavery is His " ordinance ;" 
and this is, also, to overthrow one of the pillars of 
society. 

INVASION OF god's PEEEOGATIVE. 

The case of Dr. Ross is most remarkable for a Christian 
minister. He writes a book, entitled, " Slavery Ordained 
of God." Li the book he tells ns that "Slavery is of 
God;" and the relation essential to it he puts into "the 
same category as those of husband and wife, parent and 
child." What next? He tells us that he has been a 
slaveholder, but is not one now. He has " emancipated 
his slaves," and the act cost him " some self-denial." He 
does not boast of the act, but evidently regards it as re- 
dounding to his credit. 

This case presents a singular mixture of morals and 
logic, and we presume Dr. Ross does not stand alone. It 
is a sound principle, on every ground, that the only 
authority which can warrant a person in setting aside a 
just law or^rdinance, is the authority that established it ; 
and not only so, but the manner in which it may be set 
aside must be as clearly set forth as are the provisions of 
the ordinance itself. This principle may be applied to the 
matter in hand. Dr. Ross and his co-laborers claim 
slavery to be a Divine " ordinance ;" that this is a doc- 
trine of written revelation ; and they are out of patience 
with those who dissent. They do not pretend that they 
have any revelation for emancipation. On the contrary, 
it is one of their cardinal doctrines in defence of the 
system, that the word of God is utterly silent on the sub- 
ject of emancipation. And yet Dr. Ross coolly tells us 
that he has "emancipated his slaves," or, in other words, 
that he has deliberately abolished an " ordinance of God ;" 
one which is in " the same category" with marriage and 



602 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

the parental relaliou, and which, therefore, is essentidi to 
human welfare; that he did it with "some self-denial," 
but nevertheless he did it, and thinks it well, and yv^isbes 
others to think so. We should suppose that such an 
unwarranted invasion of tlie Divine prerogative ought to 
have cost him " some self-denial," and not a little. Would 
he thus repudiate bis wife, and banish his children ? 
Why not, with equal authority ? 

THE RELATIONS IN DIALOGUE. 

But we are not done with the absurdities of this doc- 
trine. We have noticed two, which are absurdities in 
logic. There is another, partly logical and wholly 
practical. 

It is a little remarkable that this equality of authority 
for these several relations is urged to sanction the system 
of negro slavery in the South, — and is deemed an argu- 
ment of such force as to put to silence all opposition, — 
when, notoriously, the matrimonial and parental relations, 
as an " ordinance of God," on which the servile relation 
is made to rest for its sanction, are, among the slaves, 
utterly ignored in laio^ and have no existence in fact. It 
is most amazing, — it puts all logic to the blush, and pre- 
sumes upon ignorance of what is universally known, or 
supposes a stultification of conscience, touching the sacred- 
ness and authority of ordinances on which the whole 
social fabric rests, that would be criminal, — to see men 
seriously urge the lawfulness of a given relation, on the 
groimd of the lawfulness of two other given relations, 
where the latter are confessedly binding upon all who 
enter into the family state, when these two are utterly re- 
pudiated, in law and in fact, among the entire people on 
the one side for whom the lawfulness of the first is 
claimed. 



THE RELATIONS IX DIALOGUE. 503 

Good morning, Mr. Smith. Do you live in South 
Carolina ? 

Yes. 

Do yon deem negro slavery a divine institution ? 

Certainly. 

On what ground ? 

The relation between master and slave is upon the same 
ground as the matrimonial and parental relations. They 
are all alike " ordinances of God." 

Do these other two relations exist among your own 
slaves, Mr. Smith, as " an ordinance of God ?" 

They live together, and have children. 

Are they hnvfully married? 

Our " slave code" does not recognize marriage among 
slaves, so that we can exactly call it " an ordinance of 
God ;" for, it must be confessed, it allows us to sell and 
separate any that live togethei-, and their children ; and 
in fact that is often done, and done against the consent of 
the parties. 

Does it not look a little queer, then, Mr. Smith, that you 
should urge a divine sanction for slavery on such a ground 
as that ? 

Our ablest divines have presented that argument often; 
it appears sound. 

Tiieir reasoning is bad enough, at best ; but it would 
not be quite so strikingly objectionable, practically, if the 
other two I'elations were hedged about by your laws as 
slavery is. Your " slave code" is burdened with laws 
about one of these relations, securing all the interests of 
slavery ; but the other two are ignored in law, among tlie 
slaves. Is not that a singular argument for the one, which 
is based upon the other two, where the two have no exis- 
tence ? 

Oh ! but our laws secure the rights of husbands and 



504 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

wives, parents and children, as truly as they do those 
of masters and slaves. 

How is that, Mr. Smith ? Did you not say that the laws 
make no provision for marriage among slaves, and that 
they gave you authority to break up and separate families 
at pleasure, and that this was often done ? 

Yes ; but it was of the laws about these two relations 
among the whites that was meant. 

Ah! you mean, then, that two of these relations were 
^' ordained" for the white race only, and that the other was 
" ordained" for the negro. Is that it, Mr. Smith ? 

Well — it is about that — practically. 

Then the argument of yeur divines to show God's sanc- 
tion for slavery, drawn from the social relations, is this : 
that because he has *' ordained" marriage and the parental 
relation for the whites, he has therefore "ordained" 
slavery for the blacks. Is that it ? 

\Yell, — they are more skilled in these things ; you must 
consult them. 

Good morning, Mr. Smith. 

Such is about the point and pith of the argument for 
negro slavery in the South, drawn from the matrimonial 
and parental relations, for the sanction of the system as an 
*' ordinance of God." Two of the relations are made for 
the master only ; the other for the slave. 

A SOUTHERN FAMILY ESTABLISHED. 

Let us bring the argument for negro slavery based upon 
these several relations, as each an " ordinance of God," to 
a practical test in another way. Leaving abstractions, let 
us take a real case. We shall assume that the clvU 
relation of ruler and ruled, with regard to the case now 
to be considered, exists properly, and we shall notice only 
the other three relations. 



A SOUTHEEN FAMILY ESTABLISHED. 505 

Here is a family of four persons. It consists of John 
Smith and Mary, his wife, John Smith, Jr., their son, all 
white persons ; and Peter, a negro slave, held as a '' chattel" 
under the " code" of South Carolina, in the name of the 
elder Smith. It is claimed that these three relations, in 
this concrete case, have equally the sanction of Scripture, 
and that each is an '' ordinance of God." How does this 
appear ? Eacli of these relations had a beginning, as to 
that particular family and these particular persons. How 
could they, of right, be formed, so as to make each one, 
when formed, an "ordinance of God ?" 

There is no difficulty in regard to the first two. When 
John Smith wanted a wife, whom had he a right to marry? 
Any woman in the wide world, not within the prohibited 
degrees of consanguinity or affinity, who was willing to 
marry him. The marriage of John and Mary was based 
upon mutual consent. The relation of husband and wife 
was thus properly formed between them, and the demands 
of the law of God were fully met, and thus the first 
" ordinance" is established in this family under tlie divine 
sanction. John Smith, Jr., is the offspring of these parents, 
begotten and born in lawful wedlock. The second or 
parental relation is thus formed in this family, according to 
the " ordinance of God," and is therefore brought fully 
under the divine sanction. 

We have now only to provide for Peter, and to see if we 
can exalt his relation into an " ordinance." How shall it 
be done ? There appear to be some practical difficulties in 
the way of bringing him under God's " ordinance," as a 
slave to John Smith, though he is John's slave under South 
Carolina law. 

Whatever is done for Peter's relief, must be done in 
accordance with the Scriptures, for it is an " ordinance of 
God" that is to be established. 



506 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 



DIVINE ORDINANCES PLAIN. 

All God's ordinances are ex])licit. If tliey involve the 
instituting of a relation, they show how it is to be formed, 
and what is essential to it. Is it a union with the Church ? 
Tlie Scriptures show in what this consists, the terms of 
communion, the lequisite qualifications, and how member- 
ship is to be formed. Is it severance from tlie Church ? 
They point out the offences which justify it, the officers who 
are to judge, and the several successive steps to be taken. 
Is it of baptism, or of the Lord's supper ? They are full 
upon every point touching persons and things. Is it of 
marriage ? They declare who may and who may not join 
to constitute this relation, and point out the sin of violating 
the hiw. Is it of divorce ? Tliey define wliat may and 
what may not sever the I'elation of husband and wife. , 

And so on through every ordinance ; every thing essen- 
tial to the case is made clear. And, be it observed, it is 
not merely the duties of these several relations which the 
Scriptures make plain. It is the relations thanselves upon 
which they give light ; the 2^€.rsons who may enter into 
them, and all the requisites for their formation. 

THE SERVILE RELATION AS AN " ORDINANCE." 

Now, how are we to form this relation between master 
and slave, so that it may be an " ordinance of God," with 
the same undoubted certainty as to the persons who may 
be masters and the 2^'^^'sons who may he slaves, and all 
other things essential to it, as in the case of every other con- 
ceded "• ordinance of God ?" Do tlie Scriptures give us 
any light whatever on these points ? Plow can we, at the 
start, put Peter into the family of John Smith, of South 
Carolina, so tljat the relation which Peter will then sustain 
to John as his slave, will be in the same sense an " ordi- 



THE SEKVILE RELATION AS AN " ORDINANCE." 507 

nance of God" that the marriage tie by which John and 
Mary are husband and wife, is an "ordinance of God?" 
What is there in Scripture^ as regards this " ordinnnce," 
to shoio that Peter might o tot just as tcell have been the 
master^ and John the slave? We put aside mere abstrac- 
tions at present, and we wish the doctrine applied to this 
concrete case. If it cannot exphiin the rehition existing 
between John ai]d Peter, and how it was originally formed 
as an " ordinance of God," the doctrine cannot apply to 
any case. It must first establish the relation between 
John, the master, and Peter, the slave, and then vindicate 
it as God's ordinance. What is the j^rocessfor doing this, 
pointed out in Scripture ? 

We have no difficulty in putting Peter into th.e family 
of John Smith as his slave, under the statute lav) by w^iich 
he is held. We can kidnap him from Africa, by Col. 
Lamar and the slave ship W inderer ; or we can transmit 
him by inheritance from the honorable family of Smith, in 
the line of John's ancestors ; or we can buy him of Wade 
Hampton with John's money ; or we can give John a 
" clean bill of sale" from a friend as a gift, Avith " one 
dollar" as a consideration. We can exhaust all the j^ossi- 
ble modes'by which he could have been made and held a 
slave, and brought into this relation to John Smith, any 
one of which would stand the test of South Carolina law; 
and yet, we fail to find any one of them, or all of them 
together, anywhere set forth as the modes by which this 
relation may be constituted^ so as, without question, to 
make it an "ordinance of God," as the matrimonial and 
parental relations are acknowledged to be; while, how to 
exalt Peter into "an ordinance" in a Scriptural manner is 
the vital question at issue. 

Now, can it be possible, that a relation Avhere such 
momentous interests are involved, can be elevated to the 



508 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. 

dignity of a divine " ordinance," founded on revelation, 
and put on a par with the matrimonial and parental rela- 
tions, — a relation, as in negro slavery in the South, involv- 
ing life, liberty, the grossest ignorance, ignoring marriage, 
breaking up famihes,— and yet, the Scriptures be utterly 
silent on the manner of its formation^ and the persons 
vfho may enter it, on the one side and the other, while 
tliey are so full on these pomts touching every other re- 
lation where an " ordinance of God" is concerned ? Credat 
tTiidceus Apella. 

THE ONLY LOOPHOLE, AND THAT CLOSED. 

There is but one possible resort .by which any advocate 
of this doctrine can attempt to relieve the case of Peter ; 
and that we have already met, and it will avail him noth- 
ing. The New Testament can throio no lig^ht upon it. 

The only thing left is to go back to the time of Abraham 
and Moses, to the Jewish law, which would allow Peter 
to be "bought with (John's) money," as "bondmen" were 
then bought of the "heathen." But that resort presents 
sundry difficulties which Ave have already noticed. 

As we are now confined to a specific case, we say as 
before, that until you show as unequivocal commands as 
Abraham and Moses had, commands as directly addressed 
to the present race of masters as those ancient commands 
v/ere addressed to the Jews as a distinct people, you can 
gain nothing by that resort; and if John Smith claims 
that he has a right to Peter, under those ancient com- 
mands, he must show, that he, John Smith, infallibly be- 
longs to the present class to whom like commands are 
addressed, or that a similar command has been addressed 
to him in person. All this must be as certain antecedently 
as the claim which any Jew could make, and theii John 



THE ONLY LOOPHOLE, AJSTD THAT CLOSED. 500 

Smith can proceed, but not before, to possess himself of 
Peter. 

If these positions are not tenable, then we say as before, 
that any person or any number of persons, without any 
authority v:hatever from God, may at anytime, and in any 
country, get up a system of slavery "to order,'' and imme- 
diately place it under the ancient Jewish law, w^ith the 
same good reason that the Southern system can be placed 
there. 

We here drop the discussion upon the Scriptural claim 
of Southern slavery to a recognition by both the Old and 
New Testament. There are other arguments Avhich are 
often advanced for the claim which it is unnecessary to 
notice. If those which we have considered cannot be 
maintained, the claim must fall. On which side lies the 
truth, ^ve leave the reader to judge. 



610 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. — LAW OF NATURE. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SLAVERY IN POLEMICS.— LAW OP NATURE. 

It is of comparatively little consequence to Christian 
men, what the " Law of Nature" may teach about slavery. 
When we have a wiitten Revelation from God, and nre 
told that slavery is "sanctioned," "ordamed," "establish- 
ed," "regulated," and "sanctified," by express "com- 
mands," "covenants," "statutes," and "ordinances" of 
His word, we are satisfied with simply examining this 
Revelation. If the negro slavery of the South can be 
justified by the Scriptures, and in all the modes chiimed, 
that is quite enough ; the Law of Nature cannot add any 
thing to this testimony. So, on the other hand, after 
being so confiilently referred to the Scriptures for full 
proof for negro slavery, if we find the evidence fail, we 
need not be sent to Nature to have the case mended. 
That cnnnot supply our need, Avhile we have Revelation 
as " nn infallible rule of faith and practice." 

But we are not afraid of Nature, her Law, or her teach- 
ings. In examining the subject, however, so as to derive 
any practical benefit, and especially so as to settle the 
question before us, we are met at the outset with 
difliculties. 

DISAGREEMENT ON WHAT IS THE LAW OF NATURE. 

Men are not agreed upon the meaning of the phrase, 
"Law of Nature ;" upon what Nature herself is, as a moral 
teaclier; upon the extent, character, and authority of her 
teachings ; whether she is an independent and authoritative 



THE LAW OF NATURE. 611 

teacher, or to be limited by Revelation ; or how her teach- 
ings are to be interpreted, and by whom. These and a 
thousand other things coiiie up for settlement before we 
can make even a beginning in our investigations. We are 
then completely at sea touching this whole matter ; and it 
is the merest folly for those who have a perfect guide in 
a written Revelation, in all questions of morals, to leave 
that to follow an ignis-fatuus. 

Dr. Seabury, in defending slavery as resting on the 
*' Law of Nature," defines the phrase as follows : " By the 
Law of Nature, accoi-ding to the best usage among tlie 
ancients, and universally among the moderns, is meant, as 
we have said, that rule of fitness which the Deity has 
established for the government of men, considered as 
reasonable creatures, and intended for mutual society." 
Upon this definition, three things may be observed. (1.) 
Here is an admission that this law is not understood alike; 
for he speaks of the ^'hest usage among the ancients." 
They then differed among themselves, as all men know. 
(2.) Men also now differ as to which was the "best 
usage" among differing opinions in former times. Dr. 
Seabury is a case in point. As we shall see hereafter, he 
dissents from the opinion of one of the highest authorities 
"among the ancients." (3.) Nor is this law understood 
alike, " universally among the moderns ;" for nothing is 
more certain than that men now, as they have always- 
done, on ten thousand questions, — and this very question 
of slavery, in all its bearings, is a striking example of the 
f ict, — widely differ as to what " that rule of fitness" is, 
of which he speaks. Modern apologists for negro slavery, 
— and he among them, — deem the system of the South 
pre-eminent in its 'fitness" for both master and slave; 
the very best condition of things, "intended for mutual 
society," as taught by both Nature and Revelation. 



512 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. — LAW OF NATURE. 

Others totally dissent from these opinions. It is simply 
the determination to push this doctrine and illustrate this 
" fitness" by extending negro slavery far and wide, which 
is now deluging this nation in blood. The upshot of the 
whole matter, therefore, is, that it is ludicrously absurd, — 
not to say criminal, — to pretend that all men now agree 
upon the " Law of Nature," as Dr. Seabury here defines it. 
The Law of Nature, — so far as there is any such thing, 
Avhether we understand it or not, — is the Law of God. He 
speaks through both Nature and Revelation. His utter- 
ances from them are harmonious. They are but diftereiit 
volumes to unfold His will. Where men have not Reve- 
lation, Nature is their guide. But what is the guide in 
such a case ? We refer only to human opinions as we find 
them; what answer do they give? Is this guide the 
knowledge of God's will which men may gather from His 
works of creation and providence ? — or, within a narrower 
view, from the condition of human society ? — or, in a still 
narrower, from the voice of the individual soul, the reason, 
the conscience ? — or, from the general judgment or consent 
of mankind ? — or, is'it from all these combined ? — or, is it 
from something different from them all? Here, again, the 
philosophers of the world are disagreed, and he who 
attempts to follow them will find himself befogged and in 
despair. 

DISAGREEMENT IN APPLYING THE LAW OF NATURE. 

To show the bearing of all this upon the case in hand, 
we need only observe that some writers declare, with an 
assurance which awes timidity into submission, that the 
Law of Nature justifies slaveiy ; that it is founded in it 
and approved by it ; and that hence all nations have recog- 
nized slavery as proper on such grounds. But other 
writers as directly declare that the Law of Nature con- 



MOEAi PHASES INVOLVED IN THE APPLICATION. 513 

demns slavery; that wherever slavery has exi^-ted, though 
it may have prevailed ever so widely, it has always been in 
violation of this law, and an infringement upon the inherent 
rights of man. And thus the ablest men are in conflict on 
that which is vital to the whole question. They disagree 
upon matters of fact and of principle ; upon what the law 
itself is ; whether it approves or condemns ; and differ upon 
its application. 

When Christian men cannot agree about the meaning 
of a written Revelation concerning slavery, it is worse 
than idle to make an appeal to the Law of Nature, where 
the matters presented for its justification are vastly more 
indeterminate and inconclusive. 

MORAL PHASES INVOLVED IN THE APPLICATION. 

It will often appear, both in the investigation of this 
branch of the subject and that concerning slavery being 
authorized by the Scriptures, that men's views as to mat- 
ters of fact, principle, interpretation, and application, 
covering all that bears upon the justification of slavery, 
are more or less shaped and modified by the circumstances 
of their education, and also to a degree, no doubt imper- 
ceptibly to themselves, by their interests. It is an un- 
doubted fact, that with the rarest exceptions, the men who 
have justified and defended slavery as a divine institution, 
as an " ordinance of God," have been those who were in 
some way interested in the system, directly or indirectly ; 
sometimes through a pecuniary interest, and sometimes 
through their social or other relationships. 

It is no impeachment of human nature, except as fallen 
and blind, and no unjust invasion of any proper piinciple 
within the province of morals, to say that arguments in 
favor of human bondage, — and especially that system of 
chattelism which so dehumanizes both the master and the 



514 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 

slr-.ve as to make a man formed "in the image of Goil," tlie 
marketable, vendible cotnmoditj of another man, as '\ 
Iioi'se and an ox,— when universally presented by those 
who are interested in the system, should be scrulinized 
with some degree of suspicion. If any persons to whom 
this may apply do not feel themselves complimented, the 
fault is not ours; it is the fault of the case. Whatevcx 
else may be said of the Law of Nature, this is a true [)ii!i- 
ciple, as gathered from the universal observations of man- 
kind, — meaning now, under this view of the law, sim])ly 
the universal state of the human race, as fallen beings, — 
that all men are more or less swayed in their judgments, 
reasonings, and feelings, bi/ their interests, and often and to 
a degree without being aware of it. This is as truly settled 
in the convictions of mankind as any other fact or prin- 
ciple. 

We see no reason why the principle should not be 
applied to judgments, reasonings, feelings, in favor of 
sl.ivery ; but, on the other hand, every reason why it should 
be so applied. If the justice and force of the application 
in any manner depend upon the degree of interest in the sub- 
ject, then we hav^e only to look at what men are now doing 
in this terrible rebellion, undertaken and prosecuted for 
the sake of slavery, to see how closely their opinions, urged 
in favor of the system, should be scanned. 

ILLUSTRATIVE CONTRADICTIONS. 

Let us, now, in order to come directly to the matter in 
hand, first give an example or two to show the contradic- 
tion of writers upon the point whether slavery is justified 
or condemned by the Law of Nature. 

Dr. Seabury writes a book, published since the rebellion 
began, entitled, " American Slavery dislinguished from the 
Slavery of English Theorists, and Justified by the Law of 



SLAVERY AGAINST NATURE. 515 

Nature." He says, it is " necessary to bring the question 
of slavery to the test of the Law of Nature." And further: 
"Is not the institution agreeable to the Law of Nature, as 
well as the law of the land, and to the Scriptures ? This is 
the question which 1 propose to examine." He then pro- 
ceeds : 

Where is the nation that has pronounced a state of servitude for life 
contrary to natural justice ? What age, before our own, could point to 
moralists that proclaim it an offence against nature to hold slaves in the 
condition in which Providence has placed them. * * * jf slavery 
has, in fact, existed among most nations ; if no nation has proclaimed 
it a violation of natural justice ; and if the most eminent men of aU 
times, legislators, sages, and moralists, have confessed a state of servi- 
tude for life, no matter what name they have given it, to be consistent 
with justice, then we have, to this extent, the consent of mankind in its 
favor ; and from this consent we are entitled to infer, not indeed itg 
expediency in every country and every state of society, but its agree- 
ment with, or non-repugnance to, the Law of Nature. 

And he proceeds to defend " American Slavery" on the 
ground that it is in "agreement with" this law. 

SLAVERY AGAINST NATURE. CODE OP JUSTINIAN. 

Over against this broad claim, we put the declarations 
of the Justinian Code, which will be admitted to be con- 
clusive upon the point in hand. We need scarcely say, 
that philosophers, statesmen, moralists, accord to it the 
highest authority. From the Institutes of Justinian^ we 
take the following : 

Concerning the riglds of persons^ Title Z. — The first division of persons in 
regard to their rights is this : that all men are either freemen or slaves. 
Fretdom (from which men are called free) is the natural power which 
one has of doing what he pleases, unless prevented by force, or by law. 
Slavery is when one person is subjected to the dominion of another by 
authority of the law of nations, contrary to Natural Law. Slaves 
23 



616 SLAVEKY I]S^ POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 

are so denominated, because our commanders were accustomed to sell, 
and thus to preserve instead of slaying them.* 

So, also, in the Pandects or Digests^ Lib. 50, Tit. 17, 
Sec. 32, the same doctrine is laid down, that slavery is 
contrary to the Law of Nature : 

In regard to the Civil Law, slaves are not reckoned as persons ; but 
it is 7wt so according to Natural Law, for according to that law, all men 

ARE EQUAL, f 

It seems that the doctrine npnn human rights laid down 
in the Declaration of Independence as among "self-evi- 
dent" truths, — "that all men are created equal," taken in 
tlie true sense there intended, — was older than the days 
of Thomas Jefferson. It appears, too, that slavery is con- 
trary to the Law of Nature, — " contra natnram," against 
nature,, — instead of being in " agreement with" it, as Dr. 
Seabury asserts, provided we take as our guide authorities 
which are regarded as among the highest in the world. 
But the advocates of "American Slavery" cannot be 
turned asi<le by such slight obstacles as the Institutes of 
Justinian, even when" their appeal is made to a principle 
which such an authority, if any, is deemed competent to 
settle. 

THE JUSTINIAN CODE OVERTHKOWN. 

Dr. Seabury is of course aware that the Justinian Code 
contradicts his position, and he labors to avoid its force. 
He concedes that it is "a great authority on a subject of 

* ".Z>6 Jure personarum. Tit. 3. — Suinma itaque divisio de jure personaruin hrec 
est: quod omnes homines, aut liberi sunt, aut servi. Et libertas quidem (ex qua 
etiam liberi vocantur) est naturalis facultas ejus, quod cuique facere lih jt, nisi quid 
vi aut jure prohibetur. Servitus autem est constitutio juris gentium, qua quis 
dominio arieno contra naturam subjicitur. Servi autem ex eo appellati sunt, quod 
imperatores captivas veiidere, ac per hoc servare. nee oecidere solent." 

t"Quod attinet ad jus civile, servi pro nuUis habentur; non tamen et juro 
natural], quia quod ad jus naturali attinet omnes homines aeqoales sunt." 



THE JUSTINIAN CODE OVERTHEOW2^. 51 V 

this sort ;" speaks of it as " a code which it took centuries 
to mature," and in reference to the Law of Nature, says 
that this code "is one of the ablest developments of its 
principles ever made by unassisted reason;" and admits 
that it " declares slavery to be an abnormal state of society, 
upheld by force, and in violation of justice." How, then, 
does he reconcile the Justinian Code with his own posi- 
tion ? Or, rather, how does he seek to invalidate its au- 
thority ? — for that is really what he undertakes to do, 
after giving it such high praise. The task is most easily 
accomplished, and the resort is eminently worthy of a 
l^hilosopher. He thinks it "just possible" that we "im- 
pute to the code a flagrant inconsistency." 

He first brings against this code, hoary with that wis- 
dom "which it took centuries to mature," the charge that 
its definition of the Law of Nature is " difierent from that 
in which the phrase is commonly taken ;" that is, " differ- 
ent" from his own definition. This ought not to disturb 
our equanimity. We should freely allow any man to 
prefer his own wisdom if he likes, even though it should 
clash with that which it took " centuries to mature." We 
have seen, however, that his own definition has elements 
palpably irreconcilable with notorious facts. But that is a 
small matter. It is, so far, mere criticism, and that is 
within the capacity of any one, even upon the Justinian 
Code. The great philosophical feat is yet to come. 

He gives the observations of the Code upon the Law of 
Nature, as embracing and illustrated by the law of pro- 
creation, which appertains to " all animals, whether they 
are produced on the earth, in the air, or in the waters ;" 
and which says that " the rest of the animal creation" as 
well as man, have a "knowledge of this law by which 
they are actuated ;" and then the learned commentator 
upon Justinian proceeds to say : 



518 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF XATURE. 

Now by the Law of Nature, in this large sense of the plirase, man 
is as free as the beasts of the field ; and to say that slavery is against 
Nature, or the Law of Nature, in this sense, is merely to say that no 
precedent or analogy could then be drawn in favor of slavery from the 
brute creation. I say, could tlitn be drawn in favor of slavery ; for the 
ancients were undoubtedly ignorant of the astonishing facts which 
modern naturalists have brought to light in respect to a certain species 
of ants ; and which, if then known, would have restrained them from 
saying that slavery was contrary to Nature, even in Ulpian's sense of 
the word. But they were ignorant of these curious facts, and they 
pronounced slavery contrary to Nature, on the supposition that no 
precedent or analogy in its favor could be drawn from the brute 
creation. 

SLAVERY FROM AN ANT-HILL. 

What, now, are these " curious facts" about " a certain 
species of ants," which are to demonstrate, in spite of the 
Justinian Code, that " American Slavery is justified by the 
Law of I^ature ?" The good Doctor does not leave us in 
distress long. Like a skilful physician he comes to our 
relief; and here is the imfaiUng specific: 

Among facts, all of which are wonderful, not the least remarkable 
and' instructive is, the mutual good-wiU and affection which prevail 
between the negro ants and their masters ; and that, too, maugre the fact 
that the relation had its origin in hostiUty and violence. 

There it is ! — " American Slavery" resting on an a7it- 
hill ! Not so bad, either ; for " the logic of events" helps 
that of Dr. Seabury, in revealing that its foundations, just 
now, are a little porous. 

Who shall dispute hereafter that this is an age of 
progress ? The great Southern statesman, Mr. Stephens, 
builds a new empire on a foundation whose " corner-stone" 
is slavery ; and he boasts that no nation was ever so built 
before. At this bold announcement the world stood 
aghast. And now, this great New Yorli Doctor tells us 



AISIT-SLAVERY. — STRIKING ANALOGIES. 519 

what this " corner-stone" rests upon — an Ant-hill. And 
the True Presbyter ian commends to the good people of 
Kentucky, in several successive issues of the paper, the 
Doctor's book as being very able, and as putting the de- 
fence of slavery " on grounds distinct from any yet pre- 
sented" in their columns. We see wherein the distinction 
lies. We have failed to discover, however, that the paper 
has exhibited the Ant-hill doctrine. As this is one of the 
most "distinct grounds" on which the Doctor "justifies 
slavery," we recommend its insertion. 

ANT-SLAVERY. STRIKING ANALOGIES. 

This feature of the defence of the negro slavery of the 
South is altogether so rich and instructive, that we must 
give a further extract from Dr. Seabury upon ^;?^slavery. 
He quotes joyously from a work on Natural History, thus, 
where the autlior is speaking of the habits of certain 
species of ants : 

It is both warlike and powerful, and, unlike the rest of the tribe, its 
habits are far from being industrious. Enough Jias been said to show 
that the proceedings of some insects so nearly resemble human actions, 
as to excite our greatest wonder : but the habits of the legionary ant 
are still more surprising than the proceeding of the chiefs which we 
have just described. It is actually found to be a slave-dealer^ attacking 
the nests of other species, stealing their young, rearing them, and thus, 
by shifting all the domestic duties of their republic on strangers, escaping 
from labor themselves. This curious fact, first discovered by Huber, 
lias been confirmed by LatreiUe, and is admitted by aU naturalists 
The slave is distinguished from its master by being of a dark. ash-color^ 
so as to be entitled to the name of Negro — an epithet now appropriated 
to the Formica fusca, or ash-colored ants. Their masters are light in color 
The negro is an industrious, peaceable, stingless insect; the legionary, s 
courageous, armed, and lazy one. 

Here is a pretty striking analogy, it must be admitted 
between the " hj^bits" of o)ie of the two classes of ants, 



520 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF NATUKE. 

and certain Southern masters — "far from being indus- 
trious ;" " slave-dealers ;" " escaping from labor them- 
selves ;" " warlike, courageous, armed, and lazy." Pretty- 
good. 

SLAVE-TRADE JUSTIFIED. 

It will be seen, also, that not only is " American slavery^'' 
here "justified," but all its concomitants are sanctioned in 
the same manner. Both the foreign and domestic slave- 
trade is carried on by these ants. The master tribe are 
represented as " attacking the nests of other species, steal- 
ing their young, rearing them," and thus having " servants" 
of their own. This is precisely the way slavery began in 
our country — " stealing" men, women, and children, from 
Africa. We presume, therefore, that Dr. Seabury and his 
warm admirer and patron, the True Presbyterian^ go in 
for reopening the African slave-trade, — which, also, the 
leading rebels of the South were in favor of, — justifying it 
upon the " Law of Nature ;" that is, the proceedings about 
an Ant-hill. We shall not lack for a definition of that 
controverted phrase hereafter. 

But there is more in an Ant-hill than at first appears — 
when stirred up a little ; and especially in this one. How 
does Dr. Seabury know, that which he so confidently as- 
sumes, that the Justinian Code can be so easily overthrown 
by a tribe of ants ? How does he know that " the ancients 
were undoubtedly ignorant" of ant-wars and ant-slavery ? 
Does he presume they never saw an Ant-hill ? They 
knew a great deal more than has come down to us 
in books. His reasoning, even should we allow it any 
value, is wholly built on his own ignorance rather than 
upon theirs. He argues from a negative premise. If he 
is so confident they did not know these things, let him 
show the evidence of it. If he is so sure of their ignorance, 
let him relieve his own. This is certainly incumbent on 



ITS PBAOTTCAL ADVANTAGES. 521 

him, when he is aiguiDg for the perpetual bondage of 
human millions from the quarrels of an Ant-hill. But it is 
of very small moment whether " the ancients" were " igno- 
rant" in this matter or not. The Justinian Code is likely 
to survive this assault. 

CANNIBALISM JUSTIFIED ON SIMILAR GROUND. 

This hill is as pregnant of conclusions as of ants. If the 
"habits" of the lower species of animals are to be a guide 
to man in his moral relations, they may justify many other 
things besides negro slavery. If the Law of Nature, on 
this ground, sanctions slavery, it also sanctions cannibal- 
ism. Did the good Doctor never hear of animals devour- 
ing each other ? Fishes live upon fishes ; insects upon 
insects ; and the various tribes of carnivorous animals live 
upon each other. May mankind then eat one another? 
If it be said that no animal ever devours one of precisely 
the same species, we should demand proof, as upon the 
proposition that " the ancients" never saw an Ant-hill. As 
it is a negative proposition, it would require a larger 
amount of evidence than the Doctor may be able to give. 
But we waive that. Even though it were true, that the 
carnivorous animals eat other species only than their own, 
— of the contrary of which we have had ocular demon- 
stration,-— we could get along w4th that difficulty very 
easily. The Anglo-Saxon need only eat the negro. Some 
wise men make them of a different race entirely ; others 
say that they are at least of a different species of the genus 
homo. The case then is clear. Cannibalism is established 
upon the Law of Nature. 

ITS PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES. 

Besides this solid foundation for cannibalism, it has its 
practical illustrations and its advantages in certain cases. 



522 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LxVW OF NATURE, 

The examples become less mimerous as Christianity ad- 
vances, but that is no matter ; the Gospel of the Law of 
Nature is older than the Christian era. We can follow 
the New Zealanders and the Feejees, and can instruct 
modern missionaries to re-establish their ancient and well- 
observed customs. 

And then, this might be a serviceable argument among 
the rebels. It is said they are scarce of food. If the 
Doctor's book is among them, as is most likely, we think 
they will see that upon his premises they might serve up 
their fat negroes as meat for their armies. If " necessity 
is the mother of invention," they may do it without his 
aid. And it may be well, too, as a measure of safety ; for 
if they do not eat their negroes, the negroes will be very 
apt to devour them ; and, in either case, we do not see but 
the Law of Nature would be equally well and profitably 
illustrated. 

But seriously, — and in fact we have been serious all 
along, — is it not a sorry sight, to behold a grave divine of 
the metropolitan city of New York, at this time of day, 
dealing out such stuff to a sensible people, for the "justifi- 
cation of American Slavery by the Law of Nature;" help- 
ing thus, by the silliest of all imaginings, to prop up a 
tottering system of human bondage that has plunged his 
country into a bloody war which is slapng by myriads 
both bondmen and freemen ! And is the sight any less 
humiliating, to see a Presbyterian newspaper, claiming to 
be " religious," attempting, week after week, to enlighten 
the benighted people of Kentucky, in the year of grace 
1864, by commending such a work to them in the highest 
terms of approval ? If any thing can exceed the infatuation 
of rebel politicians and their coadjutors in the South, in 
attempting to overthrow their Government by armed 
rebellion, it is the infatuation of rebel sympathizers, ex- 



DR. THORNWELL's ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. 523 

hibited in such feats of literary accomplishment as the one 
here noticed, and many more like it.* 

DR. THORNWELL's ARGUMENT FROM NATURE. 

A similar view may be taken of the argument of Dr. 
Thornwell, about slavery being justified by nature, as found 
in the " Confederate General Assembly's" Address to the 
Christian world, and in the Southern Presbyterian Review^ 
extracts from both of which we have given. 

In the former, he says : " Whatever is universal, is 
natural. We are willing that slavery should be tried by 
this standard." Let us then apply the test. Sin is " uni- 
versal" among men. Is it, therefore, "natural;" that is, 
right, justihable ? 

But here is more logic of the same sort. Dr. Thorn- 
well proceeds : '* We are willing to abide by the testimony 
of the race, and if man, as man, has everywhere con- 
demned it ; if all human laws have prohibited it as crime; 
if it stands in the same category with malice, murder, 
and theft, then we are willing, in the name of humanity, 
to renounce it, and to renounce it forever." 

Here is a carefully framed sophism which spoils the 
whole argument. It takes a good logician to be a good 
sophist, and Dr. Thornwell was the former when he chose 

* General Cobb declares, that "even learned judges in slavelioldlng States, adopt- 
ing the hinguatre of Lord Mansfield, in Somerset's case, have announced, in judicial 
decisions, that ' slavery is contrary to the law of nature.'' " He refers to such deci- 
sions as found in the reports of Southern courts. He remarks upon the point, as 
follt)ws: "The course of reasoning, by which this conclusion is attained, is very 
much this: That in a state of nature all men are free. That one man is at birth 
entitled by nature to no higher rights and privileges than another, nor does nature 
si)ecify any particular time or circumstances under which the one shall begin to 
rule and the other to obey. Hence, by the law of nature, no man is the slave of 
another, and hence all slavery is contrary to the law of nature. While "learned 
judges in slareJw/ding SUites,'"' thus judicially announced, years ago, this doctrine, 
"learned" divines in ?io«-slaveholding States, in a time of rebellion and war in be- 
half of slavery, are trying to prop it up by every possible means; by nature, revela,- 
tion, and all other "aid and comfort' they can give to rebels in arms! 

23* 



524 SLAVERY IX POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 

to be. His rerisoning liere is based upon an assuinpt:(>n, 
and one which is notoriously contrary to fact. Have m -n 
universally reprobated the crimes which he specifies? 
Plave " all human laws proliibited" each one in the cata- 
logue? Did the laws of Sparta, for example, prohibit 
and punish " theft," or rather its detection ? Weie not 
many things sanctioned there by law, even under the 
teaching of their great lawgiver, Lycurgus, which are 
now reprobated?— when, "to teach the youth of Lacedae- 
mon cunning, vigilance, and activity, they were encouraged 
to practise theft in certain cases ; but if detected, they 
were flogged, or obliged to go without food, or compelled 
to dance round an altar, singing songs in ridicule of them- 
selves." 

Have "all human laws prohibited" all other crimes 
which are now upon the statute-books of enlightened 
States ? Nobody will pretend this. What then does the 
argument- amount to, based upon universal condemnation 
of specified crimes, when no such condemnation exists ? 
Suppose then slavery has not been universally condemned 
among nations ; neither has " theft ;" nor has " murder," 
in all the degrees and phases of that crime in which it is 
now condemned by Christian States. This argument, then, 
amounts to just nothing at all. It is a skilfully framed 
sophism, and nothing more ; and Dr. Thornwell was al- 
ways skilful.* 

* If there is any thing of special value in the legislation of ancient Pagan nations 
as an example for a Christian people, take the following, as one among a thousand 
cases, from one of the greatest lawgivers of antiquity. It was one of the "peculiar 
institutions-' of Sparta: "A singular custom was the flogging of hoys {diam<M- 
tigosisl on the annual festival of Diana Orthia, for the purpose of inurin- them to 
bear pain with firmness. The priestess stood by with a small, light, wooden image 
of Diana, and if she observed that any boy was spared, she called out that the image 
of the goddess was so heavy that she could not support it, and the blows were then 
redoubled. The men who were present e.xhorted their sons to fortitude; while the 
boys endeavored to surpass each other in firmness. Whoever uttered the least cry 
during the scourging, which was so severe as sometimes to prove fatal, was cousid- 



PAGAN AN EXAMPLE FOR-CHRISTTAN STATES. 525 



PAGAN AN EXAMPLE FOR CHRISTIAN STATES. 

But wiaving all this, and admitting the assumption to 
be true, — of, even admitting the implied affirmative as- 
sumptioD, that slavery has been universally approved 
.imong nations ; admitting, as the True Presbyterian says, 
that "tlie Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Gauls, 
the Saxons, the Normans, all held slaves," — ^ not this a 
most humiliating; exhibition for Christian men to make ? — 
to appeal to the Pagan States of antiquity for an example 
to guide Christian States and Christian men, at this time 
of day, in their highest moral duties towards their fellow- 
men? 

Has the Gospel produced so little effect in our day, and 
in our count ry, that its teachers must go back two thou- 
sand years to Paganism for a guide in ethics where the 
most important interests of humanity are involved ? — that 
they must seek shelter from the scorn of men, for slavery^ 
in those Pagan States which have long since been purged 
of slavery^ and this too by the influence of that very 
Christianity which they preach and profess to exemplify 
as a light and a guide for all mankind ? Oh, shame, where 
is thy blush ! 

There is another aspect of the case presented by Dr. 
Thornwell which deserves notice. Leaving the negative, 
he turns to the positive view of the subject, and immedi- 
ately following what we have given above, triumphantly 
adds: "But what if the overwhelming majority of man- 
kind have approved it ; what if philosophers and states- 
men have justified it, and the laws of all nations acknowl- 
edged it," etc. ? We have already met this in part, but it 
claims a word or two more. 

ered as disgraced, while he who l,ure it without shrinking was crowned, and rcceiyed 
the praises of the whole citv." 



526 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 



SLAVERY SUBMITTED TO A POPULAR VOTE. 

How easily he here shdes from what just before was 
assumed to be the " universal," to what he is now content 
with calling a "majority!" Suppose we admit that " the 
overwhelming majority of mankind have apj^roved" of 
slavery, does that settle any thing about the right of the 
case? Are mankind always right in their judgments? 
"What if philosophers and statesmen have justified it;" 
what then ? Are they infallible ? Is not the whole race 
in sin, — as this distinguished theologian held, — with judg- 
ment, heart, conscience, biased to evil? And do we not 
all recognize the fact that men may and do change their 
opinions ; that the world may improve in its moral judg- 
ments, and that it is doing so daily upon a thousand ques- 
tions hoary with age ? 

But is this representation true in point of fact ? Can 
any one for a moment suppose that " the overwhelming 
majority of mankind approved" of slavery, at the time the 
Justinian Code was promulgated? — a code containing the 
" matured wisdom of centuries V — a code which pro- 
nounced slavery to be " against nature" — contra naturam ? 
This claimed approval of a former day is untrue in point 
of fact ; and if it were true, it would establish nothing to 
the purpose upon the question of moral right. 

But if this question is to be settled by the voice of a 
popular " majority," — rather a singular tribunal for Dr. 
Thornwell to erect to decide a moral question, and still 
more singular for the " Confederate General Assembly of 
the Presbyterian Church" to propose for the determina- 
tion of any question, while they have joined their fellow- 
citizens in rebellion against the constitutionally expressed 
will of the whole American people, — but if this is the 
tribunal, the voice of the "majority," suppose we take a 



AMEEICAIS^ SLAVERY FOUNDED ON HUMAN LAW. 527 

vote to-day ; what would be the deqision upon slavery ? 
Suppose we submit it, at the present moment, to a vote of 
the whole civilized world ? Would the advocates of negro 
slavery be willing to abide the result ? For our part, we 
certainly would. If, then, it is to be determined by a 
popular " majority,'' we propose it to all civilized and 
Christian States and Christian people. Anno Domini 
1864. 

THE INEVITABLE CONCLUSION. 

We can not pursue the subject further, of the relation 
of slavery to the Law of Nature. One of the very highest 
authorities on this point, the Code of Justinian, settles the 
question satisfactorily. We do not think such philoso- 
phers as Dr. Seabury, nor even such logicians as Dr. 
Thornwell, writing an Address for the " General Assem- 
bly of the Confederate States," will overthrow the position 
of that code, that slavery is "- contra naturara," without 
more successful efforts than they have yet made. Tiie 
Law of Nature does not sustain the system ; but its great- 
est expounder positively condemns it. 

Nor are the arguments any more conclusive which 
attempt to sanction the negro slavery of the South by an 
appeal to the word of God. That system is Avholly desti- 
tute of the positive " commands" and " ordinances" by 
which the Old Testament system of Jewish servitude was 
regtilated ; and when the attempt is made to justify it by 
tiie "matrimonial and parental relations" in connection 
with which it is mentioned in the New Testament, the 
effort is involved in inextricable absurdities. 

AMERICAN SLAVERY FOUNDED ON HUMAN LAW. 

But passing both these, we maintain that the only foun- 
dation on which American negro slavery rests, with any 



528 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 

show of legal right in the institution which is even plau- 
sible, is that of human law. Dr. Thornwell elaborately 
argues against this, in quotations before given. He says : 
" It has been contended that the right of property in slaves 
is the creature of positive statute, and, consequently, of 
force only within the jurisdiction of the law." Against 
this position he arrays himself His proofs, however, are 
mere dicta^ and his reasonings fallacious. That we may 
be seen to do his argument justice, we refer the reader to 
a previous page where it is given at length. We can here 
only notice it briefly. He says in opposition to the doc- 
trine which he recites above, the italics being his own : 

Slavery has never, in any country, so far as wo knovr, arisen under 
the operation of statute law. * * * Law defines, modifies, and 
regulates it, as it does every other species of property, but law never 
created it. * * * The point is, whether the law made slavery — 
whether it is the police regulation of limited localities, or whether it is 
a property founded in natural causes, and causes of universal operation. 

CONFLICTING AUTHORITIES. LAW VERSUS DIVINITY. 

Dr. Baird, in his "Southern Rights and Northern 
Duties," takes both sides of this question. This will allow 
him to defend whichever side may be attacked. Speak- 
ing of one of the planks in the Chicago platform of 1860, 
he avers that slavery is the creature of positive law, as 
follows : 

Nay, further, this declaration pronounces unconstitutional the laws by 
which slavery acquired existence in eight of the Southern States- — all 
those which have passed through a territorial condition. — p. 9. 

He then takes the other side, denying that slavery is the 
creature of positive law, as follows : 

So far is it from being true, as commonly assumed, that slavery was 
nriainattd and now exists in the States by virtue of special local statute, 



\ 



CONFLICTIlSfG ATJTHORITIES. 529 

such statute is probably nowhere to be found in the laws of any people 
except Israel. Certainly there never was a law passed in any State of 
the Union, whether prior to or since the Revolution, estabUshing 
slavery.* — p. 18. 

When Doctors of Divinity disagree upon law, as Drs. 
Thiornwell and Baird here do, and the latter with himself, 
it is well to see what certain Doctors of Law say upon the 
point. We will detain the reader with but two examples 
out of many. 

Daniel Webster is conceded to have been among the 
ab!est, if not decidedly the ablest, constitutional lawyer of 
the country, well called the " Defender of the Constitution." 
He dissents from both the points made by' both these 
Divinity Doctors, regarding the constitutional right to 
slavery in the Territories, and the existence of slavery by 
positive law. In his speech in the United States Senate, 
in 1848, on the " exclusion of slavery from the Territories," 
allading to the Southern States, he says : 

They have a system of local hgislatlon on which slavery rests ; while 
everybody agrees that it is against natural law, or at least against the 
common understanding which prevails among men as to what is natural 
law. * * * I do not intend to deny the validity of that local law, 
where it is established; but I say it is, after all, local law. 

Chief-Justice Shaw, of Massachusetts, gives his opinion 
in a judicial decision, as follows: 

Slavery being odious, and against natural right, cannot exist except 
by the force of positive law. * * * ^ach State may, for its own 
convenience, declare that slaves shall be deemed property, and the laws 
of personal chattels shall be deemed to apply to them; as, for instance, 
that they may be bought and sold, delivered, attached, and levied upon ; 
that trespass will lie for an injury done to them, or trover for converting 

* Dr. Baird is "certainly" mistaken. In the State of Georgia, at least, slavery 
originated in the very way he denies,— through "a law passed" "■ estaUishing 
felavery." Gen. Cobb says: "With the exception of Georgia, where it was at first 
prohibited, no law is found on our statute books authorizing its introduction."— 
Law of Negro Slavery. 



530 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 

them. * * * If a note of hand made in New Orleans were sued on 
here, and the defence should be made that it was a bad consideration, 
or without consideration, because given for the price of a slave sold, it 
may well be admitted that such a defence could not prevail ; because 
the contract was a legal one by the law of the place where it was made. 

Thus Law versus Divinity, stands under the authority 
of great names on both sides. 

ORIGIN OF NEGRO SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES. 

Whatever may have been true of other systems, — as, in 
ancient times, originating in some countries prior to h^gal 
recognition, — that of negro slavery in this country, both 
as a system and as involving property in slaves, did arise 
and has continued " under tiie operation of statute law." 
The origin of slavery in some other countries is so remote 
that it can be traced only to the mists of the fabulous 
ages, and then it is very convenient to assert that it rests 
on the Law of Nature, " is a property founded in natural 
causes," or general custom, or rests on some otlier vague 
foundation; but its origin in this country is too recent and 
too well known to admit of doubt; and it will be borne 
in mind that Dr. Thornwell's abstract reasonino-s are made 
to bear upon and justify, and are by him directly applied 
to, the system of the South. The legal status of that 
system is coincident with its origin in this country. 

ITS HISTORY TRACED. AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 

Let us look at the historical facts of the case. Negro 
slavery began in this country in 1620. Negroes were 
brought from Africa into Virginia, and there sold as 
slaves. That was the first positive connection of the 
system with what is now the United States. Negroes 
were afterwards brought, at different times, during many 
years, and disposed of in the same way. Every portion 



ITS HISTORY TRACED. AFRICAN SLAVE-TRADE. 531 

of the country that finally possessed them, obtained them 
in this manner, or by purchasing in this country those 
oiiginally brought from Africa, or their descendants. 
These were the germs of the system, and of all rlyhts 
embraced in it, so far as it had a foothold in the United 
States; and every slave that has since been held here has 
been held by a tenure which had such an origin. 

Now, out of what did the system, thus begun, arise, 
and on what does it still legally rest? The system arose, 
in this country, "under the operation of" the African 
slave-trade; and that trade, in every countiy which car- 
ried it on and encouraged it, beginning centuiies before 
the introduction of slaves into Virginia, was legalized by 
" statute law." 

It arose from the highest civil authority known, being 
legalized by Ferdinand of Spain, in 1501 ; by Charles Y., 
in 1516 ; Queen Ehzabeth sanctioned it 1567 ; James I. in 
1618. The Dutch vessel which brouo'ht the first caro-o 
of twenty negroes into James River, in 1620, was engaged 
in the trade under charter. 

The system which thus began "under the operation of 
statute law," continued to increase in the same manner. 
Charles I. granted a charter to a company to carry on the 
slave-trade in 1631 ; and Charles II. in 1662, at the head 
of which was the Duke of York, the King's brother. The 
Royal African Company was chartered in 1672, embracing 
among its members the King, the Duke of York, and other 
noblemen. In 1688, Parliament abolished all exclusive 
charters; and in 1698 the slave-trade was thrown open to 
all persons, and negroes were exported duty fre:'. 

While the laws of England secured a .mono^.^oly to 
British subjects in bringing slaves to British Colonies, 
French and Portuguese Companies, undei- authoiity uranled 
by Spain, brought them to the Spanish Colonics. Philip V 



532 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 

of Spain, and Queen Anne of England, formed a treaty to 
promote the trade in 1713. In the reign of George IL, 
1750, it was declared by Parliament that "the slave-trade 
is very advantageous to Great Britain ;" and as late as 
1788, Parliament passed acts regulating the trade. The 
French Government encDuraged the trade in 1784, by 
paying a bounty to vessels engaged therein. 

Besides all these foreign charters, the Colonies of Great 
Britain in this country passed acts regulating the trade, 
and directly engaged in it under the legal authority of the 
mother country. 

FOUNDED IN HUMAN LAW, OR WITHOUT LEGALITY. 

And thus it is as certain as any historical facts can 
make any thing certain, that the system of negro slavery 
in the United States did arise " under the operation of 
statute law," and did continue to expand and progress 
under the highest and most " positive statutes" of all the 
civilized nations of the world. And it is further true, 
that no 7iegro was ever held in this country^ as a slave, 
" as property,^'' whose status as a slave, and as '"''property,^'* 
did not arise, either in his own person or through his 
ancestors, in just that manner. And it is further true, 
that all the statutes which have ever been passed in 
this country concerning slavery, in any of the States, 
have tacitly assumed as legal and authoritative all the 
charters under which Africans were brought to this 
country ; and all the legal basis for the system, as it has 
ever since existed in this country, and all the legal basis 
of property right in the slave under the system, rests 
ultimately, so far as law in this country is concerned, on 
the presumed legality of that authority under which the 
African slave-trade was carried on ; or, it originated in 
the local and positive laws of the respective States. 



POSITIVE LAW. INEVITABLE CRIME. Cao 

POSITIVE LAW. INEVITABLE CRIME. 

If any persons choose to go beyond the slave-tracie, and 
push the subject on into darkness, to endeavor to find a 
foundation in "natural causes," or something else, for the 
system in this country, the case will not be benefited. 
We say nothing now of the moral right of the slave-trade, 
which has since been pronounced " piracy" by the laws 
of enlightened nations, and which of course, if so now, was 
always so, in a moral point of view, — but if it was once 
leffctl^ as in a technical sense it was, then it covered the 
whole process of what was necessarily embraced in the 
trade : the obtaining of the negroes iti Africa, whether by 
purchase, or by kidnapping them ; the bringing of them 
to this country ; and the sale of them to the subjects of 
Great Britain in the Colonies. 

Now, if those who wish to escape the position, that the 
system arose " under the operation of positive statute," 
choose to go into Afiica, on what basis will they there 
place it? "It is a property founded in natural causes, 
and causes of universal operation," says Dr. Thornwell. 
What are those causes, in this case ? Captures in war 
were the most common. We have, then, visions of the 
most revolting wars among barbarous tribes; wars ex- 
pressly undertaken to provide victims to sell to the slave- 
trader ; villages sacked and burned, and large districts of 
country laid waste; the basest treachery, fraud, and 
brutality practised, and every spectacle at which humanity 
shudders. All this, so well known to the world, is then 
the alternative furnished, by the facts of the case, which 
must inevitably be accepted as the only basis upon which 
negro slavery in this country can rest, either as a system, 
or as embodying a property right in the slave, the moment 
the theory is abandoned that both had their origin in 



534 SLAVERY IN POLEMICS. LAW OF NATURE. 

"positive law." If the advocates of the system prefer the 
alternative, they are quite welcome to the superior satisfac- 
tion it must afford them. 

POSITIVE LAW THEORY SUSTAINED BY THE HIGHEST SOU- 
THERN AUTHORITY. 

General Thomas R. R. Cobb, of Georgia, whom we have 
before several times quoted, fully sustains the legal basis 
which we have laid down both for the system and the pro- 
pei-ty ri2:ht, referring it to the " purchase" made in Africa, 
which, as we have said, was covered by the legalized 
traffic which always originated either in such "purchase," 
or in kidnapping ; and General Cobb distinctly repudiates 
the latter process as furnishing any "legal ckiim" whatever, 
leaving those who reject the theory of "positive law" 
nothing to stand on. He says : 

We have seen in a preliminary sketch the history of the introduction 
of negro slavery into the United States. The origin of the system is 
found, tlierefore, in purchase, of persons already in a state of slavery in 
their own land. The laio does not go back of that fact, to inquire into 
the foundation of that slavery there, but, recognizing the rights of the 
master there to sell, sustains the title of the purcliaser from him. It 
was alleged, and, doubtless, was true, that the slave-traders sometimes 
stimulated or were engaged in kidnapping free negroes <^\ the coast of 
Africa, who were afterwards sold as slaves. Such a foundation could 
not sustain a legal claim to the bondage of the victim. 

This work of General Cobb, — " Law of ]^egro Slavery," 
— is of the highest legal authority in the South. He cites, 
in connection with the foregoing extract, several judicial 
decisions of Southern courts sustaining the positions taken. 
As "kidnapping'' in Afiica was held to invalidate the 
"legal claim," one of these decisions lays down the prin- 
ciple by which the courts are governed, that " the pre- 
sumption is in favor of the slavery there." 



THE IMPREGNABLE CONCLUSION. 535 



THE IMPREGNABLE CONCLUSION. 

The status of negro sLiveiy in the United States, rests, 
therefore, by the highest legal authorities of the South^ 
upon a different basis from tluit to which Dr. Thornwell 
and others assign it. It is unquestionably true, in point 
of fact, that vast multitudes who have been held in slavery 
in the United States, ever since the origin of the system, 
have been held upon a "foundation" which, if traced back, 
" could not sustain a legal claim to the bondage of the 
victim." Their slavery was founded in "kidnapping." It 
was, therefore, by these high Southern authorities, from 
first to last, illegal. The " presumption" by which the 
courts are governed, and which in such case would, of 
course, be in favor of the " legal claim," was no doubt a 
principle absolutely necessary to save the claim in multi- 
tudes of cases ; and as the interest of every master would 
be in favor of the "presumption," the claim would always 
be safe. 

General Cobb well says : " The law does not go back of 
that fact;" that is, of the " purchase of persons already in 
a state of slavery in their own land." It is perhaps well, 
'morally considered, that it does not, for, as before stated, 
there is nothing "back of that fact" but force, fraud, trea- 
chery, crime of every sort, in the perpetration of which the 
victims have been brought into slavery and their bondage 
perpetuated ; and the same crimes have entered into the 
traffic by which some other systems have been established. 
And yet, legally considered, there was no necessary reason 
for stopping even there. If any persons, therefore, choose 
to " go back of that fact" where Southern courts are con- 
tent to stop, and should " inquire into the foundation of 
that slavery" in Africa, they would still be obliged to 
'' fetch up" on a basis of "positive law." 



536 SLAVERY IlSr POLEMICS. — LAW OF NATTJEE. 

The African systems prevailing have the public consent 
of the chiefs and of the tribes ; the usages by which slavery 
is regulated among them are settled ; the modes of redu- 
cing one another to slavery, as for example by captures in 
war, are recognized ; " the right of the master there to 
sell" is an acknowledged right; and these, and all other 
essential regulations of those systems, dating back as far 
as any certain knowledge of those people extends, are, 
among those tribes, of the nature of " positive law." The 
Southern courts do not decline to "inquire into the foun- 
dation of that slavery" because there was any difficulty in 
finding a legal basis for it, but because they must have 
some place to begin, and they might as well begin with 
the " purchase" founded on " recognizing the rights of the 
master there to sell" as anywhere else ; and yet, that 
" right to sell" must, of course, rest on the right of posses- 
sion, which, if inquired into, would inevitably involve the 
legal status of " the foundation of that slavery." If that 
"foundation had not thus been tacitly assumed to be 
legal, " the rights of the master there to sell" could not 
have been legal, nor "the title of the purchaser from him ;" 
and, in that case, as in "kidnapping," no "legal claim to 
the bondage of the victim" could be sustained. But the 
African slavery was assumed to he legale as the right to 
" sell" and to " purchase" under it was deemed legal. The 
basis, therefore, of even the African systems, is, so far as 
we can trace it, a basis of " positive law." 

The same principle of recognizing those only as legally 
held in bondage in this country, who were legally held in 
slavery in Africa, which General Cobb declares to be the 
rule in Soutliern courts, was early acted upon in Massa- 
chusetts. General Cobb says : " The Puritans insisted that 
the traffic should be confined to those who were captives 
in war and slaves in Africa. Hence, when, in 1644 or 



THE CONSOLING ALTERNATIVE. 537 

1645, a Boston ship returned with two negroes captured 
by the crew, in a pretended quarrel with ihe natives, the 
General Court ordered them to be restored to their native 
land." This shows that all parties, at that early day, 
deemed negro slavery in this country as having no other 
proper origin than a legal one. 

THE CONSOLING ALTERNATIVE. 

If any persons choose to go still further, and search for 
" natural causes and causes of universal operation," under 
which they iinagine those African systems may have come 
into being prior to their having any legal status, — of which 
they knoiL^ absolutely nothing with certainty, — they will, 
in all probability, find, as before stated, only fraud and 
force, and all the cruelties and crimes which the facts 
w^hich are positively known suggest. 

If this affords any better foundation for satisfixction to 
the Christian conscience, we do not know that it would 
be wise to disturb it. It may be convenient to attempt to 
push the system, to avoid a legal origin, on into African 
darkness, but we do not think it is sensible. 

But, be all this as it may be, there is nothing clearer 
under the light of the heavens, than the contrary of Dr. 
Thornwell's assertions. *' Slavery," in this country, did 
arise, and is continued, " under the operation of positive 
law.'''' Such is the testimony of history, of Southern law, 
and of Southern judicial decisions: connecting its legal 
status here with its legal status in Africa. 

As we stated in the beginning of the discussion upon the 
" Polemics" of Slavery, our space by no means allo^vs us 
to present an exhaustive consideration of the subject. I^or 
is this necessary. We have noticed a few points wliich 
are radical, and which are always relied upon as the main 



538 SLAVEBT IN POLEMICS. — LAW OF NATURE. 

positions from "which the system is defended. If tlieseare 
untenable, all the rest is mei-e skirmishing. 

We freely confess that we take very Uttle interest, at 
present, in any discussion with the pen upon the right or 
wrong of slavery ; and perhaps the reader will take far less. 
We shall not blame him if he does. A discussion concern- 
ing it is going on in the country, of infinitely deeper 
moment to every American citizen. As its friends have 
appealed to the sword in its defence, let its merits be 
decided with that weapon ; and may God sustain the right ! 



THE EXTERNAL SITUATION. 539 



CHAPTER XV. 

REYIEW AND CONCLUSION. 

We bring this work to a close in the present chapter. 
Several subjects on which we had proposed to dwell, and 
some chapters fully written, are entirely omitted, to avoid 
swelling the volume to a larger size. 

The general subject which has enlisted our pen is one 
that must deeply interest every American citizen, as 
indeed it has awakened the interest and stimulated the 
inquiries of the whole civilized world. 

THE EXTERNAL SITUATION. 

It is safe to say that no contest of arms in modern or 
ancient times has embraced elements of wider range, in 
their bearing upon the general welfare of mankind, than 
the great American struggle now progressing. At the 
outset, it so seriously disturbed the industrial concerns of 
the two largest nations of Western Europe, to name no 
more, threatening thousands of operatives with starvation 
and endangering the public tranquillity, that it was feared 
they would, in self-defence, become parties to the quarrel, 
and thus enlarge the theatre of war. And during every 
stage of the strife thus far, an uneasy feeling about 
" foreign intervention" has more or less constantly haunted 
the minds of the people. 

This was counted on by the leaders of the rebellion as 

an absolute necessity, involving, as they supposed, the 

daily bread of millions, and the regular flow of business 

in all the channels of trade. Without this hope, it is 

24 



540 IlEVII'W AND CONCLUSION. 

highly improbabie tliat they would have ventured on a 
bloody revolution. But they believed tliey were masters 
of the situation ; that they had but to speak, and tlie 
world would obey. Hence, they defiantly proclaimed : 
" It is a remarkable fact, that during these thirty years 
of unceasing warfore against slavery, and while a lying 
spirit has inflamed the world against us, that world has 
grown more and more dependent upon it for sustenance 
and wealth." "Strike now a blow at this system of 
labor, and the world itself totters at the stroke." It is 
not wonderful, under this hallucination, that in their 
schemes of treason they should have attempted to justify 
themselves on the ground that they were discharging a 
" duty" in this regard which they owed " to the civilized 
world." 

That the industiy of the nations has suffered, and that 
their internal quiet and peace with us have been impei illed, 
is unquestionable ; but that the world's industry, its trade, 
its tranquillity, were absolutely tied to the stake which 
they held, the event has disproved. It is nevertheless true 
that this belief, begetting the confidence that ibreign 
intervention were a necessity, nerved them to strike the 
first blow ; and it is also just as true, that the foreign aid 
which they have actually received, by land and sea, during 
every hour of the war, has enabled them to strike every 
subsequent blow with more effect, and that without such 
aid the rebellion would long since undoubtedly have bee*^ 
crushed. 

EESPONSIBILITY OF FOREIGN POVTERS. 

This feature of the case shows the magnitude and 
bearings of the contest, not only by revealing what has 
been put at hazard, touching the actual necessities of 
toiling millions, but it draws into a deeper channel the 



RESPONSIBILITY OF FOREIGN POWERS. 541 

great question of international comity. That the United 
States, in contest with a rebellion against its lawful au- 
thority, provoked by no governmental aggression, as the 
greatest statesman of the South declared, — a rebellion 
begun and prosecuted solely for independence in the 
interests of negro slavery, — should have encountered, 
under the name of " neutrality," the early, consistent, 
determined opposition of the great powers of Western 
Europe, in aiding the rebellion in ships, munitions of 
war, and in every other way which w^as possible or safe, 
presents a view which gives no satisfaction to those who 
prefer peace to war, and international friendship to 
enmity. 

But the facts cannot be set aside by any sentimental 
philosophizing. They are written in deeds of blood. 
Tliey mark every battle-field where lie bleaching the 
bones of the slain. They are imprinted on every rebel 
breastwork mounted with English cannon. They are 
seen in every rebel platoon armed with English rifles. 
They are found on the deck of every piratical cruiser, 
built in English ports, carrying English guns, supplied 
with English powder, and manned by English seamen. 
The tale Avhich these outfits of a "neutral" power tell, is 
read in the death-cries of our fathers, husbands, sons, 
and brothers, and is heard in the midnight wail of the 
homeless widow and the orphan. It is read in the perils 
which still hang over our national destiny, and in the 
alternate hope and fear which thrill the hearts of millions, 
lest, after all the sacrifices made for our national honor 
and safety, for human freedom at home and for down- 
trodden man abroad, our national disintegration should 
fall a prey to foreign jealousy of our rivalship and great- 
ness, through a perfidy as venal as the hypocrisy of the 
powers which exhibit it is transparent. 



642 REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 

THE COMING RECKONING. 

It is not in human nature to pass over these things 
without a settlement. It may come soon, or it may be 
deferred. That the day of reckoning will come, we have 
no more doubt than that there is a God in the heavens. 
The deeds which demand it are imprinted on the memory 
of this generation indelibly. The impression will be 
transmitted to the generations to come. In God's own 
time and manner, whether soon or hereafter, the debt 
will be paid with compound intei-est. We but speak, as 
we verily believe, the common mind and common heart of 
this nation. 

For the depredations upon American commerce com- 
mitted by English piratical cruisers, we doubt not a 
demand will be made by our Government. That a record 
of every case is scrupulously made, we do know. Whether 
the demand for compensation will be complied with, we 
do not know. Whether refusal will be made a casus 
belli^ is of no material concei-n. Full compensation for 
actual losses at sea would be but as a grain of sand in the 
scale of accumulated obligations. There are debts in- 
curred which can never be paid in pounds, shillings, and 
pence. There are duties to be discharged which can be 
met only by an exhibition of the national power of the 
United States towards those who have forever blackened 
their honor in endeavoring to work our ruin ; who have, 
with a meanness and a littleness which no words can ade- 
quately express, seized upon the hour of our domestic 
calamity to cripple the rivalry of our power by division, 
to humble our honor in the dust, that they might lord it 
over us, as they have always lorded it over the smaller 
States of Europe. In no other way can this balance be 
adjusted. 



ESSENTIAL DISCRIMINATIONS. 543 



RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. 

But this is " vengeance," cry the timid and the meek. 
It is Justice, we re23ly; and a justice which will meet 
the approval of Heaven. It will conserve the ultimate 
interests of humanity, and preserve the peace of the 
world. A nation, to make itself respected, must exact 
that which is just, and inHexibly hold to the right and 
the true. If it permit wrong after wrong to be heaped 
up mountain high, with no effort at redress, it sinks into 
contempt, becomes the prey of every power, and can 
never count securely on peace; while, on the other hand, 
such a course hazards the peace of the world. 

The principle of Justice is the highest recognized by 
writers on international law as proper between nations. 
This they must exemplify in practice. It is on this ground 
alone that we insist that the United States owes a debt to 
herself and to humanity, respecting the great powers of 
Western Europe, which she must eventually discharge. 
That it is a debt of the clearest Justice, we shall not waste 
words to argue with any one who chooses to dispute it. 
That it will be cancelled, we have no manner of doubt. 

ESSENTIAL DISCRIMINATIONS. 

That we have warm friends in both England and France 
we all know. We honor Victor Hugo, and others of the 
French Academy. Looking to England, we praise God 
for her John Bright and her Richard Cobden in her Parlia- 
ment ; for her Professor Newman and Goldwin Smith, 
among scholars ; for her Star and her JVews of the London 
press ; and for hosts of others. But her Government, her 
aristocracy, and hordes of her merchant princes, have 
been our sworn enemies, to the full extent that their selfish 
interests and their sordid fears would permit. With the 



544 REVIEW AND CONCLUSION". 

government and the aristocracy, the interest is concen- 
trated in their power; with the trading classes, in the 
pocket. 

As for their opposition to slavery, so demonstrative in 
days that are past, it was strong, and their weapons 
were always burnished and ready, so long as slave pro- 
ducts were filling their coiFers with gold. But w^hen a 
rebellion arose to make slavery more secure than ever, to 
expand its area and perpetuate its power, with honorable 
exceptions they wheeled promptly about in support of the 
war waged in its interest, and against the Government 
seeking its overthrow, because their profits from the insti- 
tution were diminished. 

POCKET PHILANTHROPY. 

We shall never be at a loss hereafter for an exact stand- 
ard by which to measure British philanthropy, in a cause 
where the interests of down-trodden milhons are con- 
cerned. Its criterion is the pocket. They are for their 
freedom and elevation, so long as their actual bondage 
helps the pocket. They are for their slavery and degra- 
dation, if their freedom or their efforts to obtain it endan- 
ger the fulness of the pocket. 

We would not revile our British brethren ; we have 
friends among them, and relatives. But the great Napo- 
leon once said, that they were but a nation of shop- 
keepers. 

While we thus speak, we shall ever honor those, in Par- 
liament and out of it, who have raised their voices for 
freedom and humanity, and for our right to manage our 
internal afiairs in quelling a foul rebellion without their in- 
terference ; resisting on the one hand class interests and 
governmental power at work to reach their sinister ends, 
and on the other that narrow spirit which measures every 



FOREIGN ENMITY PERSISTENT. 545 

thing by the value of a farthing. For them we have an 
abiding afiection. 

OFE CAUSE MISEEPEESEXTED. 

The class for whom we have the deepest contempt, 
among foreign nations, embraces those who are looked up 
to as guides of public opinion.. The impression they have 
most studiously sought to make is, that ours is a mere 
contest for power, for territorial aggrandizement. This 
they reiterate in Parliament, upon the hustings, through 
the press. They say it so often, so boldly, and in such 
places, that it is not wonderful that many among the 
people who take their cue from them believe it. 

But this is not only the basest of falsehoods, but, the 
worst of all is, they knoic it to be so ; and this is true when 
applied to Lords Palmerston and John Russell in Parliament, 
and to the colunms of the London Times. We presume 
that neither of these high dignitaiies, nor the great Thun- 
derer, will care for our individual opinion ; nor we for their:-. 
The only importance the case has in our eyes, is, that they 
delight in stabbing our national life through their personal 
and official villany. • 

FOREIGN ENMITY PERSISTENT. 

Let it not be said that we are stirring up bad blood. 
That element has already been infused into our international 
relations by the course of the powers of which we speak. 
We take the case simply as they present it. Li a great 
contest for existence, we treat those abroad as those at 
home ; as friends or as foes. 

If it be said, chat these foreign powers are more 
friendly now than formerly, we answer that we see no 
proof of it. If it be said that there is less danger of in- 
teivention now than formerly, or no danger at all, we 



546 REVIEW ANi> CONCLUSION. 

admit it. But it is because they see it to be useless, or 
that in intermeddling there may be danger. Those who 
have been our enemies abroad are so still. Give them an 
opportunity, and they would show it. Let our national 
capital be taken, or any extraordinary disaster to our arms 
occur, and all the aristocracies of Europe would shout for 
joy, and the echoes would be heard over the earth. Let 
Jefferson Davis and his Slave Confederacy be recognized 
by us, and their exultations would rend the very heavens. 

While the great antagonistic elements of American and 
European civilization exist before the eyes of the world's 
millions, it is perfectly idle to say that the ruling powers 
of Europe have any other wish than our national dismem- 
berment and total overthrow. If we are pointed to the 
large numbers of the middle classes, we find this to be true : 
the more influential among them, as a whole, would be for 
or against us, as their own commercial profits would be 
enhanced by the one course or the other; while those 
honorable exceptions who sympathize with our Govern- 
ment against rebL'llion, are but the exceptions, and are 
well-nigh powerless against those who sway the destinies 
of European politics. 

THE POPULAR MASSES WITH US. 

Turning' away from the rulers to the teeming millions, 
and though we do not find them arrayed in court dresses 
and rolling by in aristocratic pomp, the view is refreshing. 
They have a true sympathy with popular liberty, a heart 
detesting oppression and a hand raised to strike it down, 
whether the sceptre of power be the mace of the noble- 
man or the whip of the slave-driver. They watch our 
contest with an intensity of mterest surpassed only by our 
loyal citizens. 

They have confidence in our triumph. This is seen in 



THE POPULAR MASSES WITH US. 547 

their actions. At no period in our history has immigra- 
tion from Europe been so rapid as during the war. This 
is not by reason of the large bounties paid to sohiiers. 
This may influence some. But the mass come with their 
families, and to better their condition. Our taxes do not 
deter them. The fear of national ruin does not deter 
them. They believe we shall triumph. They see in that 
triumph the inauguration of popular liberty on a grander 
scale than is promised in any other land of the broad 
earth. They come to enjoy it, and to secure a heritage 
for their children. As friends of liberty and of the op- 
pressed everywhere, we welcome them from every nation 
under the wide heavens. 

Another token of sympathy from the heart oi the people 
of Europe, is seen in their Addresses to the People of the 
United States, encouraging them in the contest with 
slavery and rebellion. Many of these have been received 
since the war has been progressing ; several coming from 
the people of the British Isles, and others from Conti- 
nental countries. 

One of the latest, just heralded to the world as we write, 
is from the people of Geneva, one of the earliest and 
firmest homes of popular hberty in Europe. It is thrilling 
to the heart of every true American, and must nerve the 
arm of the soldier in battle, to hear the echoes of these 
eloquent voices from among the hills of Switzerland. 
They close their Address, made to the "People of the 
American Union," in the words : " Hail, Liberty ! Hail, 
Republic of the United States !" 

We rejoice in the response which has been made to this 
Address by the Secretary of State. Mr. Seward says : 
"Your Address adds strength to the already strong claim 
which binds the first Federal Republic of America to the 
oldest and foremost Federal Republic of Europe. The 
24* 



548 EETIEW AJS^D CONCLUSION. 

people of Switzerland may rest assured, whoever else 
may fail, that it will not be the people of the United States 
which will betray the republican system to foreign ene- 
mies, or surrender it to domestic faction^ 

God grant that this pledge of the Secretary of State, 
made on behalf of the Government and People of the 
United States, may be kept inviolate ! 

THE INTERNAL SITUATION. 

We have looked at the aspect of things from without; 
at the adverse influences operating against us in foreign 
nations ; and at the favorable influence we are exertinp- 
upon the masses of the people, and the interest the reed 
people of Europe take in our struggle. 

We turn our view within, and look at some things at 
home. This has, indeed, been the theme of our entire 
writing. We do not desire to repeat or to recapitulate 
what we have said, but we will notice a few points of the 
general subject, suggested by what has already gone before. 

We take it for granted that no subject has ever so in- 
terested the American people, since they have been a 
people, as that which now rocks this nation on its deepest 
foundations. We can conceive of no subject, next to 
one's personal salvation, which can take so deep a hold 
upon the mind and heart of an American citizen, as that 
which involves the great issues bound up in our present 
contest. 

WHAT THE CONTEST EXHIBITS. 

What is at stake ? — what is involved ? — what has called 
mighty armies into the field ? — for what are we pouring 
out our best blood, and covering all the plains of the 
South with the mangled limbs of the slain? — and for 
what are we encumbering ourselves and our children with 
a debt under which s^enerations will groan ? 



WHAT THE CONTEST EXHIBITS. 549 

To hear some people talk, and to read whnt some peo- 
ple write, it would seem that we are merely engaged in a 
partisan contest, a political scramble. They therefore bid 
the combatants desist, rush into each other's arms, and 
fall upon each other's necks in loving embrace. We 
should rejoice at the spectacle. 

We envy not the head or the heart of that man who 
cannot take a higher view of the " situation'' than this ; 
who cannot see in the elements of the strife that which 
is infinitely above any partisan or sordid interest ; but 
who, from his stand-point, is ever prating of "peace," and 
gloating over the horrors of the war. Peace is a lovely 
and heiven-descended messenger, and war is a grim- 
visaged visitant of woes. No one in this fair land wdll 
welcome the coming of the one and the eternal departure 
of the other with more hearty rejoicing than shall we. 
But we are free to say, that we have no wish for this 
happy result, until peace can be so determined as shall give 
us a mcurltij for peace. We have no wish to light these 
battles over a few years hence, and continually. 

This contest exhibits, on the one side, a rebellion in 
arms against lawful Government, gotten up by disap- 
pointed demagogues, to make their rule more secure over 
the victims of their cruel bondage, four millions of negro 
slaves, and to extend the system indefinitely, and to con- 
tinue it perpetually ; originating in the false hue and cry, 
that the Government was to be administered aofainst their 
vested rights. 

On the other side, the Government, in the exercise of 
its constitutional rights, and in the discharge of its God- 
given duty, sustained by the people, is engaged in putting 
down this rebjllion by Heaven's ordained means, the 
sword; and as the rebellion sprung out of the interest of 
the leaders in negro slavery, and has its chief support in 



650 REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 

that system, the Government is determined, as a necessary 
means to its own salvation, to destroy slavery, and let 
the oppressed go free. 

This is the contest, and this is the whole of it. It is 
then a contest for national life, by a lawful Government, 
against a foul rebellion, s.^eking its overthrow. This is 
the simple and sole issue : a lawful Government contend- 
ing against a wicked rebellion. 

FRIENDS AND FOES. 

In such an issue, it is impossible that there should be 
but two parties; just as the House of Representatives 
unanimously resolved — " patriots and traitors." 

The question is so simple, it cannot be otherwise. It is 
incapable of division. It is maintaining our National 
Unity, or allowing it to be destroyed; triumphing over 
the rebels, or allowing them to triumph over us. On this 
issue, one or the other must conquer. The contrary is a 
simple impossibility; even a compromise cannot prevent 
it. If we maintain the Union intact, we conquer them. 
If it is dissolved, they conquer us, for it is for our nation- 
ality we are contending. If we maintain the Union, even 
with a compromise on slavery, or on any other question, still 
we conquer ; for the maintenance of our nationality is 
the vital question. So that, in any view, as they are con- 
tending to dismember the Union, and we to preserve it, 
one party or the other must triumph, and that involves 
the conquering of the other party. No other result is 
physically possible. 

It is on this simple issue that we say, that every man is 
either a friend or a foe of the Government; helping to 
maintain our nationality, or aiding to overthrow it. In- 
dilference, or neutrality, in this case, we deem not to exist 
in any man's bosom, in point oi fact We do not believe 



SUBORDINATE QUESTIONS. 551 

any American citizen is or can be neutral. But if it be 
possibly so iu any case, his position is a criminal one, 
before God and man ; and for such a man, if he has a 
soul, we feel infinitely less respect than for many who are 
in open arms against the Government. 

We will not argue here the right of the case. We only 
say, that those who are living under the protection of the 
Government, — in the loyal States, where its li;ig still 
waves, — and are aiding rebels in arms, or even tacitly 
sympathizing with them, are in a position, and doing a 
work, or entertaining a sentiment, which is offensive to 
God, and will eventually cover them with odium. 

SUBORDINATE QUESTIONS. 

There are many questions on which loyal men may 
honestly differ: as upon the necessity of destroying sla- 
very, in order to save the Government; or, if it is to be 
removed, the proper manner of its termination ; or, whe- 
ther it shall be destroyed in the rebel regions only ; and 
upon arbitrary arrests, habeas corpus, and other important 
questions. 

We regard these, of necessity, each and all, independent 
of and subordinate to the vital issue of our nationality; 
and we regard that as vital, simply on the ground that 
right, truth, honor, justice, law, order, and every other 
principle involving good government, demand that it should 
be maintained ; and because, unless it is maintained, we 
shall have eternal war instead of any enduring peace. 

This being our judgment, as we are now at war, we say, 
let the war be prosecuted until rebellion is crushed, and 
peace can be maintained on firm foundations. Other ques- 
tions, even slavery, we deem subordinate ; for, as we have 
tried to show in a previous chapter, we think it has the 
poorest possil)le chance for life, iu any issue of the war ; 



552 REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 

and yet, we greatly prefer to see no vestige of it survive 
the rebellion. 

ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENT. 

We take the same view, substantially, concerning the 
present Administration, or any other that may be for the 
time in power. Men and policies are subordinate, and as 
far as possible should be so treated, or left out of the 
account altogether. The Nation, the Government, the 
Union ; these are the vital matters. 

We think some persons make a serious mistake in fail- 
ing utterly to sustain the Government^ because they are 
not fiiendly to the Admi?iistratio?i ; having personal ob- 
jections, or dissenting from some points of its policy. 
Some truly loyal people are found in this category ; many 
who are at heart disloyal, present such objections as a 
cloak for their treason. 

Any Administration actually in office, embodies for the 
time the authority, the power, and the dignity of the 
Government, and as such justly demands all the obedience 
and honor due to the highest civil authority. Nor can we, 
practically^ distinguish between them. We can, indeed, 
readily understand the difference between the Government 
and any particular Administration in power ; for the Govern- 
ment is permanent, while Administrations and their policies 
are evanescent and conflicting. But the difference is 
wholly abstract or theoretical. Government, independent 
of an Administration, is an inoperative lifeless body; while 
an Administration is essential to give it soul, activity, life, 
power. No Government, whatever its form, acts, or can 
act, but by and through an Administration. Laws are not 
self-executing. Constitutions have no inherent vitality. 
Constitutions and laws are made by the people, and for 
the people; but they must be executed by the people's 



TKUE PRINCIPLE OF SUPPORT. — OBJECTION'S. 553 

servants ; through a personal administration, and that of 
fallible men. 

As it is impossible to have an operative Government 
but through an Adniinistiaiion, so it is impossible to sup- 
port a Government, but by sujjporting iis Admin^stiation. 
If men dissent from certain measures of the policy of an 
Administration, they must still support it, if they support 
the Government. 

TRUE PRINCIPLE OF SUPPORT. — OBJECTIONS. 

In a great contest for national life, the truly loyal will 
make as few objections, and give as generous support to 
those in power, who are endeavoring to save the nation 
and crush rebellion, as is compatible with their conscien- 
tious convictions of duty. No other principle can be 
adopted as a rule of action, cojisistent either with personal 
honor or national safjty. 

But it is lamentably true, that many who claim to be 
opposed to the rebellion, and in favor of putting it down, 
entirely withhold their support from the Government in its 
efforts to crush it, because they dissent from some measures 
adopted for that end. And it is fuither lamentably true, 
that when these objections are summed up, those who 
hold the aggregate amount constitute a large body of 
citizens. Some dissent, because the Government does not 
go far enough and fast enough ; others, for precisely the 
opposite reasons ; some, because the Government has med- 
dled at all with slavery ; others, because it did not make war 
upon it from the first, or sweep it at once away by proclama- 
tion ; some, because it has suspended the privilege of the 
writ of habeas corpus ; others, because it has committed 
errors in arresting disloyal citizens ; and on a hundred 
other points which naturally arise out of such a contest 
among such a people, many are found to dissent, and as 



654 EEVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 

far as possible loholly vntlihold their support; who, at the 
same time and in the same breath, claim that they are 
loyal, and who would resent it as an insult should any 
suspicion of disloyalty be cast upon them. 

There is another phase of the case which is even worse. 
Some are not content in withholding support, but take 
pains to throw every obstacle in their power in the way 
of the Government, being careful not to overstep the line 
of personal snfety. We need not specify the numerous 
ways by which this is done, by public men and private. 
The facts are simply notorious. Others are content with 
speaking against the Government, where no other motive 
is appnrent than the pleasure afforded in abusing those in 
power, or for personal relief. 

The obvious objection to this whole course, and to any 
and every pnrt of it, in those who claim to he loyal^ must 
commend itself to every person of discernment. It tends 
to hamper the Government, and give the most substantial 
"aid and comfort" to the rebellion. It will be truly won- 
derful, with such dead weights upon it, if the Government 
shall succeed at all in putting down the rebellion. It is 
wonderful that it can have any success, with such friends, 
either in its civil or military policy. And yet, these very 
" friends" are complaining that it does not succeed. 

No person will understand us as in the least invading 
the inherent right of every American citizen freely to can- 
vass any measures of Government, and to approve or to 
condemn, according to his best judgment, when it is done 
in a proper manner. As we have said before, men are 
nothing, administrations are nothing, policies and measures 
are nothing, in a great contest with treason, except as they 
bear upon the great issue, national salvation. The point 
we urge is, that the Achninistratio7i^ in power for the 
time, must be supported, or the Government cannot be ; 



OPPOSING THE ADMINISTRATION. 655 

and in a time of civil war, the truly loyal will give that 
generous support which patriotism demands, the withhold- 
ing of w^hich is a sin against God, and a crime against 
humanity. 

OPPOSING THE ADMINISTRATION. — CHANGE DEMANDED. 

There is still another phase of "loyalty," so called, 
which deserves a passing notice. So intense is the feeling 
of some who claim to be loyal, that they proclaim that 
they will not give one iota of influence to sustain the Govern- 
ment, to aid the war, or to crush the rebellion, — all which 
they profess to wish to see accomplished, — until we can 
have a chansje of administration. Thev deem its measures 
so impolitic or wicked, its aims so selfish, and its conduct 
so corrupt, that until there is a change they cannot con- 
scientiously aid the Government in any possible way ; in 
reciuiting its armies, or sustaining those now in the tieLI, 
or in any other measure tending directly to crush the 
rebellion. 

To mere partisans, who wish to get into power or to be 
carried upon the back of some one who does, we have 
nothing to say. To reason with partisan prejudice and 
passion is seldom profitable. For another class, who claim 
to be loyal, and whose position is that above designated, 
we have a word. 

There are two ways of disposing of corrupt officials, 
both of which are provided for by law. One is by im- 
peachment ; the other by dismissal at the end of their term 
of office, that is, by electing some one else. In regard to 
the Administration at Washington, as Congress w411 not 
meet till after the Presidential election, the latter is relied 
upon to work the change essential to bring to the support 
of the Government those who cannot support it until a 
change occurs. 



556 REVIEW AND CONCLUSION. 

Leaving politicians to discuss probabilities, let us look 
at what all must admit may possibly occur on the first 
Tuesday in November next. 

LOYALTY PRACTICALLY TESTED. 

Mr. Lincoln has been nominated for re-election. General 
Fremont is also a candidate for the Presidency. A candi- 
date is to be nominated at Chicago by the Democratic 
party. Perhaps others may be put in nomination. 

It will be admitted that Mr. Lincoln may possibly be re- 
elected. Suppose he should be, what will those do who 
claim to be loyal, — some of whom believe that they pei'son- 
ally embody an unusual amount of that sentiment, — but 
who declare that they cannot and will not support the 
Government, or help to crush the rebellion, while Mr. 
Lincoln is in power? Will they add four years more of 
total inaction, or opposition and vituperation, to the time 
already expended in that way, if the contest with treason 
should continue so long, while other citizens are using all 
their influence, even pouring out their blood, to su>tain 
the Government against its enemies ? Will they do that, 
and still claim to be loyal^ — still claim a larger amount 
of patriotism than their fellow-citizens? 

But this is a many-sided question. There are other 
possibilities. The election of General Fremont, we may 
assume, is secured. A certain class of those who suspend 
support of the Government upon a change in the adminis- 
tration will then of course become very zealous in its sup- 
port. But suppose the fiends of Mr. Lincoln should 
then sny they would withhold all support while General 
Fremont was in power; would their loyalty suffer no 
detriment? 

Or if the Chicago nominee should be elected, and on 
coming into power should announce such a policy upon 



LOYALTY ABOVE PARTISANSHIP. VIOLENCE. 557 

the manner of (iealing with the rebellion as would not 
satisfy the friends of the present Administration, but yet 
was determined on maintaining the Union intact, would 
it be the part of good citizenship to withhold support from 
the Government, or malign it, or throw obstacles in its 
way, because every measure of the new Administration 
could not be approved ? 

But if the policy of the preseyit Administration, as to 
the manfier of dealing with the rebellion, — oljected to 
from opposite grounds, and for c<3nflicting reasons, by 
different and disagreeing classes, — can justify a total with- 
hoLling of support, the same dissent from some measure 
of policy in any future Administration may justify like 
inaction or opposition. We are then brought back to the 
piinciple already announced, — and there is no other safe 
ground to occupy, — the duty of every citizen to sustain 
the Government^ by sustaining the Administration for the 
time being in poioer^ by ichatever party elected^ in crushing 
rebellion and preserving our nationality^ even though 
some measures of its policy for these ends may not be 
approved. Any other principle than this has in it the 
germ of anarchy and ruin. If we may withhold support from 
the Government until all men are agreed in every measure 
of its policy, we must wait till doomsday — and still wait. 

LOYALTY ABOVE PARTISANSHIP. VIOLENCE. 

Let no one imagine that we view things from a partisan 
stand-point. Far different from that is our feeling ; far 
different has been our action; far different will both 
be in the future. We have given, as we have had 
ability, our influence to sustain the Government in 
overthrowing reV)enion. As we have done it under 
this Administration, so shall we, and so should we have 
done, under any other. Whoever may be elected in 



558 REYIEW AND CONCLUSION. 

November next to administer the Government shall have 
our unfailing support. We know of no other stand in 
Christian honesty to take. So it would have been in the 
past. Had Jefferson Davis, who was sought to be put in 
nomination at Charleston, been elected President of the 
United States in 1860, he would have been our President, 
and we should have given his administration that support 
always demanded as a Christian duty. 

It is believed by some, — indeed, we have henrd it said 
by those whose opportunities are good for gaining infor- 
mation, beyond what appears in the papers, about secret 
organizations against the Government, — that in case Mr. 
Lincoln should be re-elected, his administration would not 
be tolerated, and that he would be assassinated. 

That there are men base enough for this is of course 
true. That there are secret organizations for this purpose 
may be also true. That there are men, all through the 
loyal States, ready for any thing which will destroy the 
Government and give triuinpli to the rebellion, is beyond 
doubt true. But we have not lost faith in the loyalty of 
the people at large. Desperadoes, in a time of levolution, 
are ready for any thing. But we do not believe that 
'partisanship has so corrupted the masses of the people 
who are for sustaining the Government and putting down 
the rebellion, that they would for a moment countenance 
a revolution against any Administration which the people, 
should constitutionally put in power. If Mr. Lincoln is re- 
elected, it will be hailed with joy by his friends, and be 
quietly submitted to by his foes. If any other candidate 
is elected, tha same result, vice versd^ will be seen. Poli- 
ticians may gnash their teeth, on one side or the otlier, as 
the issue shall be determitied, and desperadoes, whether 
within or without the Golden Circle, may organize, and 
arm, and bluster; but the people have too much at 



THE patriot's REWARD. 669 

Stake to inaugurate or support a revolution^ whoever may 
atterapt to lead it, against any Administration constitution- 
ally elected. Tlieir experience with the rebellion now on 
theiv hands, convinces them that one thing of this very 
sort is enough at a time. 

GOD REIGNS OUR TRUST. 

We have said we have not lost confidence m tlie people. 
Much less have we lost faith in God. That He presides 
over the destinies of this nation we know fioni His word, 
for He presides over all. And though His word does not 
reveal the path opened for us in the future. His providence, 
as we have attempted to show elsewhere, is shaping events, 
as we believe, through our eventual purification, for a 
more glorious career for this people. We may yet have 
to pass through a fiercer furnace than that now glowing. 
If so, it will be just. We eminently deserve it. 

But whatever is in store for us, whether greater trials 
or Hpeedy deliverance, and by whatever means, we know 
that all events are in His hand, and that He will do His 
ple-asure. He works through all policies, all men, all 
ev<^nts, and reaches His ends infallibly and gloriously. 

THE patriot's REWARD. 

The national contest in which we are engaged, places a 
stamp upon men and things which time can never efface. 
Those who are sustaining the Government, the truly loyal^ 
will have their names and their deeds transmitted to pos- 
terity with honor. They will go down to coming genera- 
tions in a graJider halo of glory than that which encircles 
the memory of the patriots of the Revolutionary Era ; for, 
if successful, the good which will be vouchsafed to the 
nation in its salvation from anarchy, and in the triumph 
of freedom, will far eclipse that which was secured by its 



560 EEYIEAV AND CONCLUSION. 

birth and independence. If tbey fail, their reward in the 
esteem of the wise and the good will be none the less, for 
success is not the criterion of merit ; and it will still be 
true, that thi'j battled for riglit, for law, for order, for free- 
dom, for humanity, against treason and rebellion opposing 
good government, and forging stronger fetters to body 
and soul for millions in human form. 

But they cannot fail. God is in the contest, and His 
strong arm will give them the victory. All who share in 
the conflict will share in the reward which a grateful 
people will bestow upon them. As we have been accus- 
tomed to venerate the names of those who signed the 
Declaration of Independence, and on every anniversary of 
our nation's birth to honor the surviving representatives 
of the Revolutionary army, so it will be in the days to 
come concerning the present war. The men who have led 
our armies to battle, and the soldier who has stood in the 
ranks, will alike be honored for acts of greater prowess, 
for sacrifices in a greater cause, and for securing results of 
far higher interest to the nation and to mankind. 

The noble and the brave who have fallen will be hon- 
ored. Their deeds of valor will be rehearsed by their 
comrades; they will be cherished in the family circle 
made desolate by their untimely death ; their example 
will be transmitted as worthy of imitation ; every village 
churchyard, every city cemetery, and the burial places in 
every rural neighborhood, will exhibit mausoleums of 
enduring marble, on which their names and their battles 
shall be inscribed, before which the stranger will pause in 
mute admiration, and upon which devoted affection will 
hang garlands of unfading laurel. But the most enduring 
monument to their patriotism will be erected in the hearts 
of their countrymen. From the highest commander who 
has fallen, to the private, each will be held in grateful and 



THE TRAITOR S DOOM. 561 

affectionate remembrance. Each succeeding generation 
will embalm their memory, and time will waft its fragrance 
until time shall be no more ! 

' THE traitor's DOOM. 

The patriot's reward has its counterpart in the traitor's 
doom. There are chapters in the history of this contest 
of loyalty and treason among the darkest in the annals of 
the human race. If we had an enemy on earth, we could 
wish for him no sorer punishment than that which is in 
store in the righteous judgment of posterity for all those 
who have plotted, instigated, aided, abetted, or in any 
way, at the South or in the North, helped on this godless 
and heaven-defying rebellion. 

Of the two classes, — those at the South who have open- 
ly aided and fought for it, and those in the loyal States 
who have secretly or openly aided it while enjoying the 
protection of the Government, — the latter are infinitely 
more abhorred, both on earth and in heaven. Posterity 
will accord with this judgment, now universally enter- 
tained among the loyal. Every dictate of human reason 
and every principle of religion declares it. 

" The memory of the wicked shall rot," is a saying of 
Holy Writ. This may prove true of the " wicked" in this 
rebellion. r c Scripture does not state when the process 
shall begin or when the woik jhall be finished. We trust 
the period in this case will be distant. Valuable purposes 
to this nation and to mankind will be served by holding 
their ^' memory" up to the gaze of men. 

We wish our children and our children's children to 
know when, how, for what, and by whom, this rebellion 
was begun and prosecuted. We wish them to know, from 
the words of the rebels themselves, that it was begun with 
no sufficient reason, that it was to overthrow lawful 



662 EEVIEW AND CONCLUSIOlir. 

authority, that it was to extend and perpetuate human 
bondage. "We wish them to know the agency of the 
Church in this work, the zeal of the ministers of religion, 
and the organic indorsement of ecclesiastical bodies. We 
wish them to know the truth, and the whole truth, that 
they may understand the awful guilt of men, and watch 
more narrowly the interests which God has consigned to 
tht^ir faithful keeping. 

Future Bancrofts and Prescotts will write the elaborate 
histories of the rebellion ; and we hope some Peter Parley 
will tell its simple tale in the pages which will be read in 
every school-house and rehearsed at every fireside. 

Let its story thus go abroad over the wide earth and 
among all people, until the sun shall no more rise upon a 
master nor set upon a slave ; let it go down through all 
the generations of men to the end of time ; and then, let 

THE MEMORY OF THE WICKED EOT ! 



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